


Breathe For Me

by starcatcher2149



Category: X-Men, X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alex is still in Vietnam, Alternate Timeline, Angst, Explicit Language, Graphic Torture, Graphic Violence, Hurt!Alex, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Scott and Alex Summers age fix, Sentinel Project, Smut, Torture, Trask Industries, hurt!Eric, hurt!Scott, older scott, raven didn't save alex, repressed x-genes, younger Alex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 16:02:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 39,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8673718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starcatcher2149/pseuds/starcatcher2149
Summary: Mystique didn't make it to Vietnam in time to save the group of mutants who were being taken to Trask Industries by William Stryker. Completely out of options, Mystique heads back to the Institute to beg Charles for help.Meanwhile, Alex is running out of time and it doesn't seem like anyone even noticed he was gone.[Tags might change, so keep an eye out for those.]





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> This fic completely disregards the Days of Future Past timeline. It's in its own AU timeline and is just a continuation of Alex Summer's story line. In this fic Scott is Alex's older brother. Any possible warnings will be at the beginning of each chapter. This fic is not beta-ed so don't be afraid to give me any grammatical criticisms. Anything to make this work better is welcome

Alex sat on his bunk, eyes fixed on the ground as he sat waiting with several other mutant lieutenants. Their group has been quarantined a few days ago and no one was allowed in or out of the barrack without special permission. Alex kept hearing many of the guards throwing around the name "Stryker" being thrown around and, though he didn't know much, he knew that guy had to be bad news. 

He kept waiting and waiting for Professor X, Magneto, Mystique, or just someone to come in and save them from whatever was about to happen.

       They sat around for probably another hour before someone finally came in. Alex's heart started racing when he saw a man who appeared to be thirty years old walk in. His black hair was cut in close military fashion and his face was clean shaven. He was wearing a uniform that Alex didn't remember ever seeing around their camp before. The guy - who Alex assumed to be Stryker (or associated with him) - started pointing to mutants; all of whom went willingly. But when Stryker pointed to Alex, he started to panic. The thought of another prison chilled him.

       "You need to come with us." One of the men who came with Stryker snapped.         

       Alex's face paled and his hands started to shake. He saw two people coming up to him, but he couldn't move. He couldn't make himself stand. 

       He saw Stryker pull something out of the bag hanging from his shoulder and take a step towards Alex, waving off the other soldiers. "Now, you're going to have one more chance to come with me willingly. I don't want to make a scene."

       Alex locked eyes with Stryker and suddenly felt a wave of defiance rush through him. He wouldn't willingly go with Stryker. After Cuba, he knew he had to stand up for himself and for the mutants who couldn't. His hands clenched into fists and he could feel heat growing between his fingers. "No." He said again.

       Stryker sighed and nodded back at the two soldiers behind him. They sprinted forward and slammed him to the ground. He thrashed under them, fists and elbows connected with skin and bone. A foot smashed into his head and something touched to his neck. Electricity coursed through his body and he blacked out. 

       What felt like years later, Alex was jerked out of his unconsciousness by a loud banging. His vision was still distorted but it look to him like he was in some sort of room by himself. His head was pounding and all his limbs felt like they weighed hundreds of pounds. He felt a thick metal band secured around his neck. 

When his vision finally cleared, he confirmed to himself that he was in a prison cell. What struck him as odd, was that there weren't any bars on the front of the cell, only a cloudy force field keeping him in. He ran a shaking hand through his sweat-soaked hair and felt anger boiling up inside him. He wouldn't be kept there. He wouldn't be made to stay trapped in this cell like an animal. His anger pulled him to his feet. He pushed forward and raised his arms to slam his fists against the field. The moment his hands touched the field, electricity ripped through him, dropping him back to the ground. His eyes rolled back in his head and his body betrayed him as he felt his pants growing wet. Unconsciousness followed seconds later.

 

As he slept, he had heard the voices of Charles, Erik, Darwin, Hank, and Raven floating through his subconscious. In the few moments after he awoke all he could hear was Sean screaming and the remnants of a haunting memory at the edge of his conscious… 

       His brother, an explosion, screams, falling....falling.....

       He remembered blood. Blood from a head wound. Blood from a few scrapes.

Pain. Pain from broken fingers and wrists. twisted ankles. Bruised skin. 

       Crying. Tears streaming from his eyes as his brother wouldn't open his own. Tears dripped from his chin and splattered on the tightly packed earth. 

       A pounding heart as they ripped him away from his brother. 

       Betrayal when they put him in a separate foster home.

       Upon waking, he had curled himself into a fetal position in an attempt to hide himself from everything he was feeling. He wanted to forget. He never wanted to be touched by a sliver of emotion every again. All he wanted to do was run. He wanted to stop hurting. He wanted to stop being afraid of himself. 

 

His thoughts were interrupted by a high pitched screech. Alex felt like his ears were going to start bleeding. Finally, the scream let up and he heard a sharp bark of high pitched-feminine laughter. "You like that?" She chuckled. "Aren’t dogs supposed to respond to whistles?”

       Alex slowly dragged his fingers away from his ears, the ringing fading into the background. "Wh-who... a-are you?" Alex croaked. With every word he spoke the ringing came back full volume. 

       "Who am I? I don't think that's really your concern. You'll find out eventually. For now you need to do exactly as I say. Choose to defy me and I'll...actually. I don't want to ruin the surprise. I'm sure you'll find out soon enough." Alex could hear the sneer in her voice. "I do hope you prove me right. I haven't had the chance to properly punish someone in a long time. Now," She paused and Alex could see her walking back and forth in front of the cell. "There are a few people who want to see you and ask you a few questions, take a few measurements, and whatever else they see fit. That sound good?" She waited a beat and continued when he stayed islet. "Let's get going. Don't make me drag you to them."

       Alex sneered and pulled himself up into a standing position, his knees shaking once he was semi-upright. Beads of sweat rolled down his face and the small of his back. He took a stumbling step forward toward the force-field, catching himself before he could fall against the field.

       "Very poise, aren't we?" The woman mocked. He watched her hand move to her wrist and he heard a high-pitched beep. The field vanished and he was less than a foot from her face. 

Her mocha skin was almost glowing in the fluorescent lighting of the hallway; sharp features drawing immediate attention to her commanding brown eyes. Her toned arms were folded tightly across her chest and she wore a military-like uniform. It was an awful olive green color and dozens of pins decorated her right shoulder. Her name tag read:  **S.A. XENA CORTAN.**

       "You done staring?" Xena smirked, a brow arching quizzically. "Because I really need to be somewhere and I don't have time for your fantasies."

       A hand snatching his wrist snapped him from his daze. Cortan’s nails dug into his skin as she pulled him forward. "I'm not playing around with you. If you don't fucking come with me now then you're gonna be in for one hell of a ride." She grinned. "No need to make any of this harder.” Alex remained silent as he trudged unwillingly behind her, stumbling over his own toes in an attempt to keep up with her quick pace. Xena shook her head. "Again with the brooding silence. That’ll change in a few hours." A quirky smile stretched across her lips. She whipped him around a corner, pushing him down a hallway and into another room. 

       Alex's blood was pounding in his ears when she forced him into the room. His foot caught against an uneven doorway, causing him to slide across the linoleum floor - bare skin rubbing painfully against the slick floor. He hissed out a breath as he watched calloused hands twist in his shirt collar and pull him to his feet. 

       "It's so nice to meet you, Alex." A sickly deep voice said. "I've heard so much about you. From the Cuban Missile Crisis to all the information I've extracted from your friends. I always wanted to take a closer look at you. Your powers and the way you absorb energy could be life-changing. Your genes could be the next evolution of solar panels. Our next energy source." The man pulled him over to a metal chair and forced Alex onto it, securing him with straps around his wrists and ankles. "All we need to do is tap into that power."

       Alex sneered, adrenaline providing a veiled self confidence. "If that's all you wanted then why didn't you just ask nicely? I'm sure I would've considered."

       He heard Xena snort and the man turned him back to him. "I'm sure we could've asked. And I'm sure you would've been all for it until you found out what sort of tests we have to run. Then I'm sure you would be anything but."

       Alex's fingers clenched around the arm rests. "You said that my friends gave you information. How did you talk to them. What did they tell you? Why did they tell you anything?"

       The man shook his head. "Oh. You'll be finding that out soon enough. Until then, I think it's time for a proper introduction." He turned back to Alex. "My name is Antonio Melche. Nice to meet you."


	2. Two

Antonio Melche, where had he heard that name before? It sounded so familiar. All he remembered was that Charles had mentioned the name before. But why? Who was this man to Charles…?

       In an instant, Alex was transported back into that moment, the rest of the world freezing around him. Charles sat at his desk, a telephone pressed against his ear, eyes filled with fire as he talked to an unknown subject:

_  "You know how critical this situation is. We cannot let anyone know about what happened. We can't let anyone know about him. I’ve lost so many of these kids already. They could hardly take down Shaw. What makes you think they’ll be able to take down something like this? And now, I only have two of them with me and there’s no chance in hell I could get more before the situation becomes critical." Charles shook his head and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "I know that he needs to be stopped but...but not by me. Not now. Maybe not ever." _

_        The voice on the other end of the line was amplified, "Charles, you may be the only one able of putting a team together to stop this. Him and Trask are two of the most dangerous men in the world. No one else is planning on creating a mutant task force. So unless you're planning on doing something-" _

_        "That is enough! Antonio Melche and Trask are sadistic and evil. The two mutants I have left are not going to be able to take him down if their lives depended on it. What they are doing is not going to be stopped by them. So, leave me alone.” _

_        "You're right. I don't know what I was thinking. Thougth you weren’t such a coward.” _

 

       Alex was ripped out of the memory and found himself face-to-face with Antonio. Deep blue eyes bore into his. Rough, calloused hands were clasped around his wrists, digging his skin into the metal edges of the arm rests. "Well that was an interesting memory, was it not?" His tone was light and almost playful, in a sickly sense. "I love when people give credit when due. Now do you see why I couldn't have asked nicely? You would have gone to your Professor, asked about me, and turned me down. And you were too busy getting ready for Vietnam." He moved away from Alex and headed toward the other side of the room.

       The blonde's eyes were fixated on the door only a few feet in front of him. He had a direct path to the door and the restraints felt loose enough for him to eventually slip from.

       A harsh laugh come from Antonio. "Do you really think you could escape so easily? What were you planning on doing once you made it past that door? There’s dozens of guards ready to stop any escape." Antonio looked over Alex's shoulder at Xena. "Plus, you would never get past our lovely Xena. She's just too quick for you. Aren't you?"

       Alex glanced over his shoulder just in time to see Xena blink out of view. In a split second she had appeared next to Antonio, a smug expression on her face. "I would listen to the man. We don't want to hurt you any more than we have to."

       Alex sneered, his self-control being tested. Heat grew in his gut and if he was pushed any farther he wouldn't be able to control the plasma building inside him. He needed to get out. He had to get out. No other option presented itself. He needed to find a way.

       "It's really quite admirable that you think you can still escape us. And those powers of yours...well, you can try to use them. You can try and blast your way out of this facility. It isn't going to work, but a little bit of fight every now and then keeps things interesting. Don't you agree, Xena?"

       She nodded. "If everyone did what I said I would kill myself from boredom."

       "What are you gonna do with me then?" Alex snapped, finally getting vocal with them. "You keep going on and fucking on. Just get to the point!"

       Antonio smirked. "There we go. That's what I like to hear. A little defiance in the morning!"

       "You're all fucking talk! What do you really want with me?"

       "You know what we want. We want to harness your energy and convert it to something that the whole world can benefit from. Is that not something you want?" Antonio asked, mock innocence creeping into his voice. 

       Alex scoffed. "Right. Exploit people for the economic benefit for others. That's original."

       Antonio sighed and looked at Xena. "Take him back. Maybe try to convince him that we aren't the villains. We just want what's best for everyone."

       "Do you honestly think I'm that stupid? You don't want to help people! Aren’t mutants supposed to stick together? Do you not have any loyalty?" Alex shouted, his arms straining against the restraints.

       Antonio's eyes become flooded with anger. He took a few steps towards Alex and came face to face with him, their noses practically touching. "Don’t you dare question my loyalty."

       Alex inched closer. "I will not contribute to you thinking that exploiting mutants is a good source of profit. You won't get anything from me."

       The man smirked. "Oh I think I will." He looked back at his female accomplice. "Xena, change in plan. Take him back with Glitter. Show him what will happen if he doesn't give us what we want." Xena's eyes lit up as she made her way to Alex. "Oh," Antonio continued. "Active that collar. I don't want him giving you any trouble."

       She nodded and pulled out a small remote from her pocket. She pressed a button and immediately a jolt of electricity zapped through Alex's body. His body jerked back and then the pain was gone. The blonde grit his teeth and took deep breaths as the pain began to subside. "Activated." She announced. Once the restraints were removed, she yanked him to his feet. She guided Alex out of the room and down the hallway to the right. Alex desperately wanted to fight her off, knock her down, and make a run for the exit. He wanted to end whatever Antonio and this Trask character were planning on. Antonio presented a threat and needed to be taken care of. 

      And Antonio had mentioned the name Glitter...there was something odd about that. The man had used the word as though it was a name...a name Alex found himself vaguely familiar with. He knew someone with the name Glitter...if only he could remember who...

       Xena and Alex rounded the corner of another hallway and she jerked him to a halt. The stood in front of a solid metal door the had no window or handles. A small keypad extended from the wall next to the door, and after Xena punched in a few digits, the door slid open. At first glance, the blonde mutant could see no one in the room. The only light in the room came from the hallway. The room had no windows or other doors. Alex could almost hear the grin spread across Xena's face as she squeezed his shoulder, "Have fun in there. I'll be back once Antonio decided to give you another chance."

       Before Alex had a second to think, she shoved him through the doorway, hit a button on the keypad, and he watched helplessly as the door clanked shut.


	3. Three

Alex sat in silence for several minutes. A few times he thought he heard light breathing, but the sound faded before he could focus on it. The darkness quickly consumed him. The longer he sat in the dark, the more vulnerable he felt. He kept thinking about calling out or trying to find the other person who was supposedly in the room with him, but he never did. He couldn't put his finger on how he knew the name Glitter, and he didn't want to take the risk that 'Glitter' was someone undesirable from his past. 

       A few more moments of complete silence passed before Alex heard a very distinct voice ask, "Who are you?"

       Alex found himself rendered completely speechless. How could he have forgotten that last name? How could it have slipped his mind for so long? "Eric?"

       "How do you know me?" The voice sounded broken and hoarse, as though he had been screaming for days.

       Alex ran a shaking hand through his grimy hair. "Eric...Eric it's me. It's Alex."

       "Alex?" 

       The blonde nodded, forgetting for a moment that they sat in complete darkness. "Yeah. Yeah it's me. God..man I thought they killed you."

       "I thought the same about you. You were out for days, I thought they had-"

       "Wait, days? What do you mean? I thought it was only a few hours."

       He heard Eric suck in a shaky breath. "You were in the cell next to me. It..it had been two weeks. At least...at least I thought it was two weeks...before I got stuck in here. They walked me past your cell everytime..."

       Alex's eyes widened. How could it have possibly been that long? Had anyone even been looking for them? Did anyone even know that he was missing? "You sure?"

       "Yeah. 'M sure."

       "Fuck.." Alex muttered. His head spun. Could it have been more than two weeks? How long had Eric been in here? "How...how long have you been in here?"

       The other mutant sighed. "Who knows. It feels like its been years but it’s probably only been less than a week. Hard to tell." With each word his voice grew smaller, as if he were afraid to talk.

       Alex felt his stomach clench. If this room served the purpose of punishing captives, then what had they been doing to Eric? "What...what do they...do?"

       Overbearing silence fell upon the room again. Suddenly Alex felt a warm presence beside him. The tattooed mutant had moved beside him. Alex felt shaking hands grapple for his. Alex's breath caught in his throat when Eric moved his hands and placed them against his chest. Immediately, Alex felt broken ribs and torn skin. The further his fingers were moved down Eric's stomach, the more the skin felt burned and broken. 

       "Oh my god..." Alex whispered. "Can you...can you not...heal yourself?"

       "No." Eric's voice was small and broken. "They’re blocking me…”

       Alex chewed roughly on his lower lip. Eric had never sounded this way before. He had always had the same temperament of Alex; a quick tongue that took no bullshit. 

       "We're gonna get out of here. I'll figure out a way-"

       "No!" Eric's voice rose above a whisper for the first time. "We can't. There's no getting out."

       "Eric we can get out-"

       "We can't!" He shrieked. "I've tried! I've tried! We can't get out!"

       Eric's arms flailed about in a panic. When Alex tried to grab Eric's arms, an elbow nailed him in the jaw, knocking him backwards. Alex slammed to the ground, head jarring painfully against the concrete ground. A wild foot knocked into his stomach, punching the breath out of his lungs. Why was Eric acting like this? What the fuck did Antonio do?

       "Eric, please. You need to stop." Alex said softly, not putting much weight behind the words. 

       Eric froze. "He won't let me. Won't let me stop. Not allowed. Not allowed."

 

*************************************************************

 

MYSTIQUE 

       She had never felt this way before. She had never felt such failure. She had never been so  _ disappointed  _ in herself. She had gone to save Alex and the other mutants, but she hadn't gotten there in time. How had they slipped through her fingers like that? She knew Stryker's schedule to the minute. Had someone tipped him off? She should have beat Stryker to the mutants by at least five minutes. Now the mutants were gone, and she would have to tell someone. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't tell anyone that Alex Summers, along with six or seven others, had been taken by Stryker. She also knew she couldn't rescue them on her own. She knew she needed people to help her. But who? Charles was in pieces, Hank wouldn't dare leave Charles to fend for himself, Angel and Sean were MIA, Shaw's old band of mutants would never help her, and there wasn’t anyone else she could turn to.  

       Maybe the professor will have files about other mutants... She thought to herself. Charles always did like keeping tabs on interesting mutants he located with Cerebro...

       Raven sighed and ran a hand through her blonde hair. She was sitting at a public bus stop and needed to blend in. She had made a pit stop in Spain after the disaster in Vietnam in order to try and collect herself. Raven hadn't changed her appearance in over a week and she didn't plan to anytime soon; at least not until she got back to the States. 

       The shape-shifter turned to the younger guy sitting next to her and asked, "Could you tell me where the airport is?" 

       He turned to her and smiled a little, gleaming white teeth catching the sun. "Yes. Take bus all the way to airport. Just stay east." His words came out slow and heavily accented, but Raven understood well enough to know where she would be going. The bus ride would easily take an hour, but she had no other mode of transport that would get her to the airport quicker. With a heavy sigh, she pulled out a previously purchased ticket and boarded the bus. 

       After several hours of long, uneventful traveling, Raven finally arrived in New York. She hailed a cab and made her way to Charles's mansion. She hoped that when she arrived Hank wouldn’t freak out too much. The two of them hadn't exactly parted ways on a high note. Raven had never tried to contact Hank again and after the events that took place on the beach, she couldn't even be sure that he would talk to her at all. He might just open the door, see her, and slam it back in her face. The closer Raven got to the mansion, the more her heart raced. The more she felt sick to her stomach. And the more she regretted her decision to come seeking help from her old friend. 

       "Hi, Hank. I know it's been a while and we didn't exactly leave on the best of terms but I have...bad news." Raven practiced the line she would deliver to Hank over and over. She knew that she had to mention having bad news. If he knew something was wrong then there would be a better chance of him listening to her. And once he knew that Alex was in danger, he couldn't say no to helping.

       The cab pulled up the the bottom of the long driveway and came to a full stop, indicating that this was where he would be letting Raven off. She paid the driver and made her way up the driveway to the main door of the mansion. It had been years since she had even set foot on these grounds, let alone entered through the heavy main doors. Now, more than ever, the mansion seemed foreboding and threatening. She gulped down the nervousness that was fluttering in her throat and knocked on the door. Sooner than she expecting, the door opened. 

       "Whatever you're selling -" The voice, which undoubtedly belonged to Hank, cut off as soon as he laid eyes on his old friend. "Oh. Ra- Mystique. What are you doing here?"

       Raven cringed slightly at his disapproving tone. "I need to talk to you about something."

       "Yeah? And what could that possibly be? You haven't wanted to talk to us when you broke Charles's heart. You were the only real family he had and you left him behind. I know he wasn't really'brother of the year', but you had no right to do that to him."

       The shape-shifter grit her teeth together so she wouldn't lash out at him. She sucked in a huge breath. "Hank, I know that a lot of people were hurt that day, but that's in the past. More people are being hurt right now and I think you might want to hear me out." 

       Hank crossed his arms. "Who's getting hurt, Raven? Who is getting hurt that I could possibly care about more than our professor who is being ripped apart from the inside? Tell me who."

       "Alex." She said bluntly. 

       A flustered look broke out onto Hank's face. "What? What do you mean? I know he's in Vietnam but...what?"

       Raven sighed. "It's a really long story and I don't feel comfortable telling it from when I'm out in the open like this. Is there somewhere inside we can talk?"

       Hank thought for a second before nodding. "Yeah. We should probably stay on the first floor, though. The professor has been quite irritable lately. If he found out that you came back...I don't know what would happen but it wouldn't be good." He ushered Raven through the doors and closed them securely behind her. She followed Hank in complete silence as he led her down the familiar hallways to his lab. "This will be the best spot for us to talk." He turned to her. "So what's going on? Why is Alex in danger?"

       She ran a hand through her hair and delivered the story. "I had gotten a tip about Stryker wanting to extract his mutant division in Vietnam and, after all the awful things him and Trask have been doing to mutants lately, I knew I had to go in and do something. I got my hands on some files and  found out exactly where and when his team would be going in to get the mutants. I was in Vietnam, easily ten minutes before Stryker should have been, but when I got to the mutant division, they were gone. There were obvious signs of struggle and I just got this god-awful feeling. Alex's bed was flipped over and there were scorch marks on his bed, like from electrical burns."

       Hank's eyes had gone wide. "How long ago was this?"

       Raven gulped. "Almost two weeks." She cut Hank off before he could snap angrily at her. "I know. I should've come sooner. I didn't know what to do. I didn't think you would actually listen to me and there weren't any other mutants readily available for hire."

       "So what made you decide to come back?" Hank asked.

       "The first time Charles used Cerebro, there were dozens of other mutants he kept a mental record of. He kept eventually put all those names, ages, abilities, and such down on paper so that if he ever needed more mutants for any reason, he had those files to turn to. I was thinking that, if he still had them, I could see if there was anyone who would be able to help."

       "Help?" Hank asked with a quizzically raised eyebrow. "With what?"

       "I can't just sit back and do nothing while dozens of mutants are being held and tortured. It's been years since Charles first used Cerebro, so I figured a lot of those mutants are older now."

       "And you think that you'll just ask them nicely for their help and they'll say yes?"

       Raven shrugged. "Maybe. I figured that it's worth a shot."

       Hank sighed heavily. He opened his mouth to respond, but got cut off by a loud banging on the mansion doors. "What? No one should be coming here...the school idea was completely scrapped..."

       The two mutants headed back out towards the main doors. Hank reached out an unsure hand and pulled the door open. A guy, probably in his early twenties, stood just outside the doors. He had on a pair of thick black sunglasses and held a white and red cane in his right hand. He had wind-swept brown hair and fair skin. He clutched a letter tightly in his left hand. "Is this the home of Charles Xavier?"

       Hank and Raven both shared confused looks. Hank took a shaking breath. "It is. Who are you?"

       "I'm Scott Summers. My brother's in trouble."


	4. Four

IN THE MANSION

Alex had a brother? Since when? Why hadn’t he told them? Why had he never brought it up? 

       “Okay.” Raven said, breaking the tense silence. “So you’re Alex’s brother?”

       The guy nodded. “I am.”

       “Then how come he’s never mentioned you? Where have you been? He said that he had no family.” Raven accused.

       Scott sighed and nodded. “I know. And I can tell you everything. I just really need you to read this letter and figure out how we’re going to help him. I had no idea he was even drafted. I don’t even know if this letter is really from him.”

       Hank placed a hand on Scott’s shoulder and pulled him inside. “Come inside. We don’t want to talk so out in the open. It would be better to talk somewhere that we know no one is watching or listening in.”

       “Who would be listening? Everything that’s wrong is happening in Vietnam. Nothing is going on here.”

       Raven huffed. “Nothing is going on in America that we know of. But there are constantly spies for the government and other independent organizations hiding out and listening for anything they can use against us. So we need to be as careful as possible so they can’t take anything we say out of context. Got it?”

       He nodded. “Yeah. It took me forever to get to this place. Most cabbies either didn’t know where to find it or refused to take me here.”

       “That’s usually how it goes. A lot of people aren’t even willing to acknowledge the existence of mutants.” Hank said with a sigh. He would never admit it to anyone, but he really missed being blue. He had felt so free and powerful, and for a while he didn’t even care that he was different from “normal people”. Raven had convinced him that he was unique and that made him feel good for a while.

       “So is this Professor Xavier guy still around? I’ve heard he might be able to help.”

       Raven bit her lower lip and Hank hesitated. Neither of them had the heart to tell Scott that the Professor in the letter didn’t exist anymore. Now, Charles kept himself cooped up in his room; crying, drinking, taking shots to suppress his mutation, and mourning the loss of everything he had built, everything he had, and everything he loved. That day on the beach he had lost Raven and Erik; the two people he loved most in the word. Since then, he had never been the same. He tried to pretend that he wasn’t hurting, but Hank never bought it. Before Alex was drafted, he called Charles out every time. Charles needed Erik back. He needed Raven back. He needed those people with him so he could feel whole.

       “It’s okay if he isn’t here. You don’t need to lie to me.” Scott said, interrupting their thoughts. “We have more important things to take care of anyways.”

       “We do.” Raven and Hank said together.

       Raven placed a hand on Scott’s left elbow and led him after Hank and into the secluded living room. She helped sit him down on one of the couches before sitting beside him.

       “Could we see the letter?” Hank asked as he sat in an armchair opposite Scott and Raven.

       Scott nodded and extended his hand with the letter in Hank’s direction. “Here. I had had my room mate read it to me the first few times.”

       “Are you blind?” Raven asked, ignoring the fact that that question came off as very rude and invasive.

       Scott shook his head. “Not really. My mutation is that I can shoot plasma out of my eyes, but it’s extremely uncontrollable. So I just keep my eyes closed cause I really couldn’t figure out a better option.”

       A thick silence fell on the room for a few moments. Finally, Hank cleared his throat and looked at the letter in his hands. “I’m just gonna read this out loud. Good?” The two on the couch nodded, so Hank started reading:

“ **Scott** ,

It’s Alex. Your brother. You may not even believe it’s me, but I just wanted to tell you about how much  **I miss you** . I didn’t even know if this would reach you, or if the address was right. I got drafted to  **Vietnam** . It is not really as bad as you would think. Sure, it’s gross and  **I** haven’t showered since I was in the States, but I’m getting used to it. A few guys in my division  **have been hurt** , but nothing too  **bad** has  **happened** to me. I  **can’t** wait to  **get out** of here soon. You’re  **not** going to believe some of the stories I’m going to tell you. I hope you’re  **safe** and doing well.  **Hope to see you soon** .

-Alex”

       “That’s definitely his barely legible handwriting.” Hank commented.

Raven raised an eyebrow. “That letter doesn’t sound that bad. How did you know he was in trouble? Is there something else in the letter?”

       Scott nodded. “My roommate pointed out that a lot of the words are unusually darker and more bold than the other. Hank, read just the words that are bolder than the others.”

       Hank looked back down at the letter and recited the choppy message that the bolded words provided. “Scott, I miss you. Vietnam. I have been hurt. Bad happened. Can’t get out. Not safe. Hope to see you soon.”

       “How could he have sent this letter? Scott, when exactly did you receive this letter?” Raven asked.

       “Like, a week ago?”

       Hank placed the letter on the table. “So, it must have been sent before he got taken by Stryker. But how could he have known that was going to happen?”

       Raven shook her head. “I don’t know. The guards talk a lot. Maybe they knew what was going to happen and Alex got wind of it.”

       “Wait, wait, wait. Who took Alex? What happened?” Scott interjected.

       Raven looked at Hank and got a nod from him. She started to get the sense that Scott could be trusted. “There’s an anti-mutant task force that is headed by a man named William Stryker. He abducts mutants from certain locations across the globe and either experiments on them by himself or brings them to other independent contractors. Currently he is under the employment of Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinel Project. He extracted a whole mutant division from Vietnam almost two weeks ago. I came looking to Hank for help to get them back. Getting them back safely is our number one priority. And if we can get any other mutants out then we will. The thing is, the two of us would never make it past the front doors of wherever Alex is. We need other mutants to help us. Mutants that are powerful. Cause our powers can’t really help us get out of tight situations. I can shape shift and Hank has the equivalent of super strength, but if we’re attacked by people with high powered weapons, we really can’t do anything.”

       Scott nodded. “So would someone like me be helpful?”

       Hank shrugged. “Probably. We’ll have to gauge your powers first, but that won’t take very long. We’re gonna take you down to a bunker so that we can safely test your abilities. We can fill you in a little more while we’re doing that. Sound good?”

       “Yeah. Let’s do it.”

 

**ALEX**

       It felt like he had been trapped in the room for days. They hadn’t been fed and the only source of water was a small faucet on one of the walls that maybe allowed them two cups of water during a certain period of time. Alex’s head pounded and he had a hard time focusing on anything. The complete darkness was starting to get to him. He thought he was hearing voices, feeling faint touches, and smelling the aromas of baked goods that had no place in the musty cell. His jaw burned from where Eric had elbowed him. Since that confrontation, Alex hadn’t heard anything from his cellmate. There had been a few whimpers and shaking breaths, but the two hadn’t heard a peep from each other. Alex was starting to get worried that he had been forgotten about and would just be left in this dark cell to rot and die. At that point, dying from hunger would have been a much better option.

       A few hours later, the door to the cell was thrown open. Blinding light flooded into the room, and two meaty hands wrapped around Alex’s biceps and pulled him from the room before his eyes had the chance to focus. Alex kicked his feet out, trying to find anything to latch onto. His efforts proved futile as he was drug across and polished floor with plain walls. By the time his eyes adjusted, he found himself in a completely empty room; save the weird metallic paneling on one of the far walls. The room had a sickly feel to it and smelled like an overly sterile medical facility. The strong hands pulled Alex to the wall opposite the metallic one, and threw him against it. Alex pulled himself to a sitting position and came face-to-face with a face distorted by layers of burn scars. The man grabbed Alex’s wrists and pinned them above his head. Metal cuffs were ejected from the wall and wrapped themselves around Alex’s wrists. Once he made sure Alex posed no threat of escape, the man left, closing the door to the room behind him.

       For an extended amount of time, Alex sat pinned to the wall. His had no feeling left in his arms and his fingertips shook uncontrollably His head pounded from the glaring lights and sweat poured down his face and back. Alex’s throat was parched and his stomach twisted with hunger pains as the minutes dragged on and on. He could have sworn that several days had passed by this point. He didn’t hear anyone talking and heard no footsteps from the hallway.

       After several hours, he finally heard something. A loud buzzing came from the other side of the room. A large nozzle pushed its way out of the metallic wall and pointed itself straight at Alex. The buzzing intensified and finally, streams of plasma surged towards him, invading every single one of his pores, power thrumming through his veins.


	5. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's kind of a touch on torture and it's nothing extremely bad but there's a lot of angst and body horror possibly toward the end. Also a brief bit of strong language

ALEX   
  
  
    It wouldn’t stop. The energy just kept coming, growing more intense with each second. After nearly ten minutes, Alex began to become overwhelmed by the rapid absorption of energy. Breathing became a laborious task, as it felt like plasma was leaking into him lungs. He could take quick moments of rapid plasma absorption, but he had never experienced something this intense. Alex felt like he would be vomiting plasma back after this. Sweat slicked every part of his body and began pooling around the waistband of his pants. He felt completely full to the brim, like he had eaten a thanksgiving dinner twenty times over. Spit poured over his lower lip, as he had neither the strength nor willpower to suck it back into his mouth.   
    Finally, when he felt he couldn’t take another second of the relentless energy, it stopped. Alex sagged against the wall. His wrists were rubbed raw and bleeding from the metal cuffs, but his body didn’t register the pain. It was too focused trying to expel all the excess plasma from his body. The plasma began leaking slowly back out of his pores, mixing with the sweat drenching his body. Along with being expelled from his pores, the plasma began exiting through his tears ducts. Then, with full body convulsions, Alex began vomiting. Blood, mixed with other stomach contents, splattered all over his torso, thighs, and the once perfectly polished floor around him.   
    Alex’s head snapped up when he heard someone walk into the room. His eyes couldn’t really focus, so he didn’t identify who had entered until they spoke. “Well this is quite a sight. You put up such a fight the other day.” Antonio. “If anything, I’m a little disappointed. Your spirit got crushed so easily. Quite unexpected.” He shrugged. “But hey, a few surprises are good for the soul. Right?” He chuckled. “Never-the-less, we collected a lot of useful data from you. We should be ready to run more tests later in the week. Until then, I hope you enjoy the time with your roommate. You two will be seeing a lot of each other in the future.” With smug air heavy about him, Antonio turned on his heel and left the room.   
    Moments after Antonio had left the room, the man with the burned face reentered. With a high pitched click off a key, the cuffs released Alex’s wrists and his arms dropped heavily to his sides. His arms began to burn painfully as blood started re-circulating through his veins. The man hooked his arms under Alex’s armpits and hauled him to his feet, then he dragged Alex back through the corridors and to the cell. He opened the cell and threw the blonde mutant in. Alex crumpled into a heap on the ground, none of his limbs ready to bear the weight of movement.   
    For a long time, the only sound Alex heard was his own heavy breathing and the painful ringing in his ears. Even after feeling returned to his limbs, Alex remained sprawled on the ground. His body was so bloated and heavy from the excess plasma, so moving at all required immense amounts of energy. If Alex had been able to use his powers then this wouldn’t be a problem at all. He would be able to expel massive amounts of energy and be fine in a matter of moments. But since he couldn’t use his powers, the plasma remained trapped inside him, settling uncomfortably in and around his organs. He just wanted to close his eyes and sleep forever.   
    “Alex?” Finally, Eric spoke. “Is that you?”  
    Alex sucked in a painful death as he fought to keep his eyes open. “..Eric…” He rasped out.  
    He heard Eric making his way towards him. Eric knocked into Alex a little so he took a step back and then sat down. Alex felt Eric’s cool hands find their way to his face. “What happened?”  
    Alex squeezed his eyes tightly shut, trying to make the room stop spinning. “Too much...plasma...cant get it out....sick…” Alex turned his head away from Eric and vomited again. His throat burned and he felt like his whole body was about to burst into flames. Bile was still dripping from his lip as he said, “Please..help me…”  
    Eric bit down painfully on his lower lip. He didn’t know what he could do. They had taken away his ability to use his tattoos. Even if he had access to them, it wasn’t like he could heal Alex of this. The plasma needed to be taken out of his body and the only way Alex could do that was if he could use his mutation, and that wasn’t much of an option. Alex couldn’t vomit all the plasma out, either, because that would leave him dehydrated and in extreme pain. Eric didn’t know if he could do anything… He had never felt so helpless.   
    “Alex, you’re gonna be okay. They’re gonna come back and make sure you’re okay. It’s gonna be okay.” Eric felt sick to his stomach because lying like this wouldn’t help Alex. But he needed to say something. He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he tried to figure out what to do. His thinking was interrupted by Alex’s breathing coming to an abrupt stop and his eyes starting to close. “Alex! Alex! No, no, no. You can’t do this. You can’t pass out. Alex you need to keep your eyes open and you need to keep breathing. Please. Please Alex. I need you to keep your eyes open.”  
    Alex grimaced but managed to keep his eyes open. “E-eric…” He croaked out. “Help..."  
    Eric snapped to his feet and ran in the direction he thought the door was. Once he hit solid wall, he began pounding furiously at it. “Help! Help! He needs help! He’s going to die! He needs help! Don’t you let him die! Don’t you fucking let him die!”  
      
ANTONIO’S POV  
  
  
    He needed results. He needed fucking results. They needed to find a sufficient power source to power the Sentinels. He knew he had found the perfect source in Alex, but he just needed to figure out the kid’s mutation. He needed to figure out where it stemmed from, how it was controlled, and where the energy was stored. If he could figure out that much, then they would have the perfect power source.   
    Suddenly, his head seared with pain. Screams from their tattooed subject pounded in his ears and he knew something was wrong. Alex. Their perfect power source. He was in trouble. Pain. Close to death. No. That couldn’t happen. If they lost him, then they lost everything. Antonio would lose everything. He would be ruined. They would reinject the blockers…. Make him… human. He shuddered at the thought of ever being anything other than his powerful mutant self. He couldn’t allow this boy to die. Not now. Not ever. Antonio would rather kill himself than see his world crumble around him like this.   
    Antonio sprinted towards where the two mutants were being held and slammed his fingers on the keypad, the door shooting open in front of him. He hit another button that flipped the lights on. He saw the dark haired mutant shield his eyes and back away from the wall. “You need to help him.” The boy shouted, not knowing who he was yelling at. “He’s dying!”  
    Antonio sent a mental message out to Xena and immediately she appeared beside him. “Bring him to the outdoor facility! Deactivate the collar and then get away. He needs to release the power.”  
    Without hesitating, Xena did exactly as he said. Antonio stood in glaring silence as he heard the equivalent of a rocket blast explode from outside. The whole compound shook before Xena reappeared with the blood mutant at her feet.   
        “Thank you Xena.” Antonio said with a nod before she blinked away.   
        Antonio knelt down next to Alex and pressed a button that reactivated the collar. “You aren’t going to die that easily. I still have a lot more planned for you.” He huffed. “I think you’ve earned these lights for a little while, though. Enjoy them while you have them.” With that, he stood and exited the room, any worry of losing his position disappearing from his mind.   
  
  
SCOTT’S POV  
  
  
    He couldn’t believe it had taken so long to find Alex. He had been searching for years with no luck, then this letter suddenly reaches him. He knew that he should be skeptical of it's validity, but this was the first real chance he had of seeing his brother again. And now Alex was in danger. Scott ran a heavy hand through his hair and sighed. For so long he had thought Alex was dead, that Alex hated him, or that he would never find his brother ever again. Scott made a silent promise to himself that he would find his brother if it was the last thing he ever did.  
    “Hey, Scott.” Scott’s head jerked in the direction of the masculine voice. Hank.   
    He stood from the stool he was sitting on in the kitchen, placing his water glass next to him on the kitchen counter. “Yeah?”   
    “I’ve got something that I think might help you. Ruby quartz glasses. I noticed they were the only thing that had the ability to refract Alex’s powers without being completely disintegrated. So with a few tweaks, I think they’ll work for you. You’ll be able to see with them.” Hank said.   
        Scott’s heart raced. He hadn’t been able to see for such a long time. He had feigned blindness for years and years. He almost forgot what it was like to see. “That would be fantastic. Should we go back to the bunker just in case they don’t work? I don’t want to destroy anything in here. I don’t think your professor would like that too much.”  
        “What wouldn’t I like?” Scott jerked around to where an unfamiliar British voice had come from. “You know, Hank, I don’t like it when you bring strangers into my home. It’s quite rude.”  
        Scott heard Hank draw in a shaky breath. “Professor-”  
        “Don’t call me that.” The voice snapped.   
        “Charles.” Hank corrected himself. “This is Scott Summers. Alex Summers’s older brother.”  
        Scott heard Charles huff. “So? That doesn’t mean I want you letting strangers into my home. Does he have a reason to be here?”  
        The older Summers cleared his throat. “Sir, my brother is missing from Vietnam. We think something really bad might have happened to him.”  
        Hank nodded. “Anti-mutant task forces have been throughout Vietnam, capturing mutant soldiers for experiments.”  
        Charles scoffed. “And where did you learn this information? There’s no way you just came across it.”  
        Hank tensed. “Raven. Raven told us. She’s been tracking Stryker for months and found out he was working with Bolivar Trask to capture mutants for the Sentinel Project. Alex's whole mutant squad was extracted from Vietnam two weeks ago, and she thinks there are dozens of other mutants who are being tortured and experimented on as we speak. They’re all in real danger and need to be rescued.”  
        “Get. Out." Charles snapped.   
        “Charles, please.”  
        “No! I told you never to speak her name in this house!” He shouted. “And if she’s in this bloody house I want her out! Take your mission somewhere else!”  
        Hank clenched his fists. “Fine. Goodbye Charles.” Hank moved and placed a hand on Scott’s shoulder. “Come on. We’re going.”  
        “Don’t come back. Don’t you fucking come back.” Charles shouted as the mutants walked from the mansion.


	6. Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Hank and Raven out following a lead and Scott feeling incredibly useless, he decided to head out on his own. How costly will that decision be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning for blood and body horror

ERIC’S POV

 

He was scared. Scared out of his fucking mind. He was more scared than he had ever been in his entire life. He had been afraid when he got his first tattoo and first powers. But now he was terrified. A few minutes ago he held a dying Alex in his arms and he was useless. His tattoos had given him everything and their power was just stripped away. He was completely helpless to save his friend and that shook him to the core.

Alex was lying sprawled on the ground a few feet from Eric. His body was still reeling from the massive intake of plasma, so Ink had decided to give him a little space. Eric had had his share of inhumane things done to him, but nothing had left him that close to death. With Eric the scientists had taken a slower approach, taking small tattooed skin samples one at a time, but with Alex they hadn’t hesitated in their experiments. And if that was just the first day of tests...Eric didn’t want to see what would come in the next few days.

“Eric?” Alex’s hoarse voice echoed through the room.

Eric scooted closer to Alex and placed a hand on Alex’s chest. The blonde was trying to sit up, but he was still too weak. “Hey, just stay laying down. You need to save your strength for whatever’s coming next. Okay?”

Alex nodded weakly and placed a hand on top of Eric’s. “Yeah.” Alex’s eyes fluttered closed again.

No sooner had Alex’s eyes closed then did Eric hear footsteps pounding their way down the hall. The footsteps grew louder until finally the door to their cell opened. The man with the burned face thundered in, threw Eric from Alex, and dragged the half conscious blond out of the room. The door slammed shut again and Eric was alone. Again.

Eric chewed roughly on his lower lip as he thought of all the god-awful things that they could do to Alex. Those scientists seemed to have no limits. Eric drug himself over to the closest wall and leaned his back against it. He felt ready to give up. He felt ready to die. They had stopped experimenting on him. At this point he was just going to waste away in this cell.

 _Oh no._ A voice seared into his brain. _We haven’t forgot about you. Not at all. That ink on your body could hold the key to powers you aren’t even aware of. We will find your creator and figure out his secrets. We just have more...pressing matters to attend to. Your friend will be most useful to us._

Just as painfully as it had come, it felt like the voice ripped itself from his skull. Ever since Eric had been put in the solitary cell he had been mercilessly harassed by Antonio. The telepath had had an intense interest in Eric ever since he found out about the origin of his power. Antonio believed that if they could figure out what mutant had given Eric his abilities, they could enhance any human. They believed they could create super-soldiers to use against the mutants, to fight alongside the Sentinels. They had yet to be successful, and Eric hoped it remained that way.

He sat in thick silence for nearly an hour before the door to the cell finally reopened and Alex was thrown inside. Blood was leaking from poorly dressed wounds on his stomach. Bruises littered his face and a thin line of blood trickled from his temple. Eric pulled Alex to his feet and move him over to the wall. Eric rested the blood mutant against the wall and sat next to him. Alex was barely conscious and Eric needed to know what had happened.

Eric placed a hand on Alex’s cheek and made the mutant look at him. “Alex. Alex you need to tell me what happened.”

“Hnnn…” Alex groaned as his eyes started to slip closed.

“No! No, Alex! You need to keep looking at me. Keep your eyes open!” Eric snapped.

Alex strained to keep his eyes open and focused on Eric. “Eric…”

“What is it?”

“They...th-they got...Scott.”

  


SCOTT’S POV (a few hours prior to the exchange between Eric and Alex)

 

Three weeks. It had been three weeks since Scott had teamed up with Hank and Raven. They had been working tirelessly. Raven had followed up with all her sources in Vietnam, trying to see if she could find out anything about where the kidnapped mutants had been taken. Despite all their efforts, they hadn’t gotten any closer to finding out what had happened. Scott was getting increasingly worried that they would never find Alex. He had come so close to finally getting his brother back and it was all being ripped away from him.

The three mutants had made their way to Maine where Raven had a couple of contacts and a place they could stay. Scott was getting more and more frustrated with each day that passed. He could only imagine the god awful things that they were doing to Alex.

Hank and Raven were out searching for one of Raven’s associates, so Scott was left alone with his thoughts. Alone with his thoughts and his feelings of complete uselessness. He knew that there were dozens of reasons why it made sense for him to stay out of the way, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that they didn’t trust him at all. The pair had left Scott behind every time they went to follow up on a lead, and it seemed like a chore for them to even tell him what their next move was. He was sick of it. Scott had shown up with a letter written undeniably in Alex’s barely legible handwriting and Hank had even run a DNA test to prove that he and Alex were brothers. It was his brother’s life on the line. A brother he hadn’t seen in nearly two decades was missing, possibly dead, and Scott wasn’t being allowed to help.

He pulled the letter from Alex out of his pocket, reading it over and over again, trying to see if there was anything that he could have missed. He sighed and eventually put the letter away. It was probably written before Alex knew what real danger he was in and he couldn’t have known where he was going to be taken. The letter was just a warning and could provide nothing to help find him. Scott stuffed the letter back into his pocket and rose abruptly. He had to do something. He had to at least get out there with Hank and Raven. They had left him the location of where they were going incase of an emergency. Scott snatched the piece of paper with the address on it, grabbed the keys to his car, and left the small apartment. The older Summers sighed as got into the beat up car and stuck the key in the ignition. He pulled out of his street parking spot and starting driving in the direction he saw the other two mutants go. He really didn’t have any idea where he was going but he wanted to at least feel like he was doing something. Scott also figured he could just as for directions if he got too horribly lost. He did vaguely remember Raven saying something about her contact being in the immediate vicinity of the town, though. So he thought it wouldn’t be too terrible hard to find.

Scott was wrong. He was dreadfully lost in a matter of seconds. The neat streets of Bar Harbor, Maine all looked painfully the same. Since it was dark Scott could hardly see the street signs. He mumbled a few crude words under his breath before pulling over on a side street. He reread the address again and rested his forehead against the wheel. He felt like such an idiot. Why did he think he could just wander off into an unfamiliar town and find his way around? Of course he was going to get lost.

“God, Scott. What the fuck were you thinking?” He snapped at himself.

“I dunno, Scott. What were you thinking?” He heard the silky feminine voice and the click of a gun being cocked at the same time. He felt the frigid metal barrel being pressed against his temple. How had not noticed her getting into his car? “Now, Scott. I know you can’t use your powers without destroying most of the residential area around us. So you have two other options. Come with me willingly or force me to pull this trigger.”

Scott grit his teeth. “You won’t kill me. You obviously need me for something.” He sneered.

She huffed. “You’re right. I won’t kill you.” Before Scott had a second to think, she snapped the gun down and put a bullet through his thigh.

Scott choked down a scream as pain ripped through his body. Black spots danced in his normally red vision. He felt a strong hand grip the back of his shirt and barely heard her say, “I didn’t want to have to do that.” His vision went black just as he saw the scene around him change.

  
  


Scott came to in a completely bare room. Pain shot through his right leg as he sat up. His hands snapped around his thigh and, to his surprise, he found that the wound had been dressed and his pants had been changed. The pants were made of flimsy fabric, like the kind hospital gowns would be made of. He also noticed that his shirt and jacket had been removed and replaced with a shirt made of the same flimsy material. His feet were completely bare and he didn’t know if there was a reason for that or if it was just an inconvenience for provide him with socks. They had left him his ruby quartz glasses, though. He found that as odd. Didn’t they know he could just remove his glasses and destroy the whole facility?

“Oh, Scott. We’ve thought of that.” A voice chuckled to his right. Scott turned his head and saw a dark haired man standing in an open doorway. “Your brother thought he could do the same thing, actually. That band around your ankle will prevent you from using your mutation, though. And if you try to use them, you will be zapped with an electrical charge.” He sighed. “I wish I had more time to properly welcome you but we have a lot of business to attend to. He walked over to Scott and crouched down, wrapped a hand around Scott’s wrist in a bruising grip. “You are not going to fight me, Scott. This will be so much easier if you just cooperate with me. Yeah?”

Scott chewed mercilessly on his lower lip. This man could bring him to Alex. He could find out about his brother’s condition. “Okay.” He said softly.

“Good.” He smiled a dazzling smile. “My name is Antonio, by the way.”

Scott swallowed his nerves and wished his stomach would stop churning. Antonio pulled him to his feet and pulled the mutant after him. “Your brother has missed you desperately. He’s even been having nightmares about the day he lost you. It really is the cutest thing. I bet he will be so excited to see you.” Antonio led Scott down a series of hallways, all of which looked exactly the same. He turned Scott a final time and the two were standing in a room that resembled a operating room. Scott felt his heart skip a beat when he saw a body chained to the metal bed on the far side of the room. The person on the bed was wearing the same pants as Scott, but from the waist up he wasn’t wearing anything.

“Oh Aaaaalex.” Scott’s stomach dropped when Antonio called out that named. “Alex you have a visitor. He’s so excited to see you.”

Scott heard a groan come from the body, who he could now assume was Alex, as he rolled over. As soon as the two set eyes on each other, they recognized each other immediately. Scott felt instantly nauseous. Alex’s eyes widened and he began to thrash against his restraints, drawing blood from his already cracked and bruised skin.

“No! No! No, no, no, no! Fuck you! Fuck you, Antonio!” Alex’s voice cracked when he said he man’s name, and, for the first time, Scott began to struggle.

Someone came up behind Scott and gripped his shoulders and forced him towards the other metal table. The man was ten times stronger than Scott, so no matter how much he resisted it was to no avail. Scott was slammed down onto the table, his back coming in contact with the hard surface. Straps tightened around Scott’s ankles and wrists. A strap also went around his forehead, something that Alex did not have.

Antonio walked in the space between the two brothers. “Now you see, you two are quite special. You are both able to absorb mass amount of cosmic energy and convert it into this extremely powerful plasmic force. You can also store that energy for later use and it doesn’t melt your insides. I want to figure out how you are able to do that. What is it about your physiology that is so different from every other mutants? Now you, Alex,” He laughed. “You are a power source. But Scott, you are a weapon. And now, I want to get right to the heart of your power. I will find your power source. You two will give me absolutely everything I want. Are you ready for that?” He laughed again when Alex let out another string of curses. “Oh shut up, Alex! You know I don’t care!” Antonio waved a hand and two women walked into the room, dressed as surgeons. They pushed in a tray of assorted medical tools, and wheeled it right next to Antonio. “Alex. I think I’m going to start with you. You’ve been here longer and after all, I need a power source before I can create a weapon. Begin, ladies.” He started to walk away before halting. “Oh, and keep him conscious. I also want to see how much he can take.”

One of the women prepared Alex’s abdomen to be cut into. Scott’s heart was racing. He knew what was coming and he hated that he was powerless against it. He couldn’t cry. He couldn’t be so weak when the situation demanded strength from him. But, as soon as he heard flesh being ripped into and Alex’s strangled screams, Scott couldn’t hold it in. He had finally found his brother and now he was being forced to listen to his baby brother scream.The strap around his forehead hadn’t been tightened enough, so Scott turned his head to watch what was happening. Alex’s back was arched away from the table, his limbs pulling on the restraints. Pained screams were tearing into Scott’s ears and he watched as tears traced their way down Alex’s cheeks. Blood was pooling under Alex and dripping onto the floor. Scott finally turned his head away, unable to watch the horrors that were happening to his baby brother.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is a little short. It's kind of a little bit of filler, but the story will start to come together a lot in the next few chapters. And I wanted to make sure I got a new chapter up before I might not post for a little bit because of finals. I hope you guys like this. I don't have a beta so sorry if this is like the most poorly written chapter ever. Feedback is greatly appreciated.  
> Also, warning for blood and body horror

RAVEN + HANK

 

A bust. Another dead end. Raven was sick and tired of people promising answers but coming up with nothing. Every person says the same thing, “Stryker was in Vietnam. Trask has been operating out of a facility in Utah.” One man gave a name of someone who was working with Trask, but neither Raven or Hank recognized the name and they could find no other information on him.

The two made their way back to the apartment in uncomfortable silence. Hank and Raven were working together and were on relatively friendly terms, but Hank was still trying to find a way to forgive Raven. She had left them when they needed her most. That wasn’t something Hank could easily get over.

They reached the apartment and the first thing Raven noticed was that Scott’s car was missing. All the lights were turned off and the door was locked. Raven jiggled the key in the front door lock for a few seconds before it clicked open. She threw the door open and stormed into the apartment.  Hank flipped on all the lights as he followed behind her. They both quickly scoured the apartment, looking for any sign of Scott.

“Raven, he isn’t here.” Hank observed.

Raven sighed and noticed that the slip of paper with her contact’s address on it was missing. It was the only thing, besides Scott, that was missing from the apartment. “The address slip is missing. So either he left and decided to come looking for us, or someone took him and the address and is coming for us.”

Hank nodded and walked back into the small sitting room where Raven was. “He probably came looking for us himself. He hated that we kept leaving him behind.”

“Well, that was pretty fucking stupid of him. It’s obvious that he’s had no training, doesn’t know his way around Maine, and he should have known that we left him behind for a reason! If we got caught in a trap then he needed to stay behind to keep looking for Alex and the others. God. If he had any training he would’ve known that.”

Hank bit back a snide comment about her not having much training either. He decided this wouldn’t be the right time to make her more upset. “Do you think he might be coming back? He could just be lost.”

“Hank, we left six hours ago. If it were me, I would be sick and tired of waiting around after about an hour. He’s probably be gone for hours. This town is small enough. Even if he got lost, he would be back by now.”

“Then, if he was taken, could it have been the same guys that took Alex?” Hank asked.

Raven ran a hand through her hair. “Probably. I mean, if they’re just looking for mutants then there would have to be easier targets than Scott. But if it’s because he’s linked to Alex…”

“Raven. You mentioned finding early blueprints for a Sentinel project.”

“Yeah? What about them?”

“Alex’s powers. When I was testing them, I found that he can absorb and convert various energies into his power. But the energy does more than become dangerous plasma. They literally keep him going. They’re like his power source. If he doesn’t have a stable input of energy then he passes out, gets weak, suffers from similar effects of dehydration or starvation. But on the opposite end, if there’s too much energy in his system then he gets overloaded, nauseous, and suffers from extreme migraines.”

“So?” Raven asked, a little confused as to where this was going.

“The Sentinels are machines. They need a power source. Trask must be looking for certain mutant abilities that can act as power sources for the machines. If they took Scott, it must be for the same reason.” Hank said.

Raven’s eyes widened. “Oh my god.”

Hank nodded. “So, they would have to be keeping them in a facility that could withstand mutant powers, be large enough to house Sentinel projects, be secluded so no one sees them bringing countless teens into the facility, be able to produce extremely high energies so they can test mutations like Alex’s, and be able to contain all the mutants.”

“Okay. We need to start looking. Now. If they have Scott and Alex, then they could have exactly what they need to make these Sentinels operational. Let’s go.” Rave snapped as she headed back out the door.

  


ALEX + ERIC

 

It hurt. His whole body hurt. But worse than the physical pain, was the emotional pain. They had gotten Scott. They got Scott and Alex was too weak and pathetic to do anything about it.

He was lying in the arms of Eric, the blood seeping from his bandages finally starting to slow down. Eric made sure to keep Alex conscious, because Alex knew if his eyes closed he would never open them up again. Eric pushed Alex’s hair to the side, away from his eyes.

“You just gotta keep looking at me. Keep your eyes open. I wanna keep seeing those pretty eyes.” Eric said softly. He had never felt this attached to someone. Before Vietnam he had tried to distance himself as much as possible from everyone. With Alex that was different. He felt pulled to Alex in a way he had never been drawn to anyone before. He felt the need to protect Alex.

“They m-might..be b-bringing Scott...here.” Alex stuttered out, his whole body shaking. “Th-they had him…”

“Shh, it’s okay Alex. It’s going to be okay. He’s going to be okay.” Eric said softly, trying to be as comforting as possible. He knew how frustrated and panicked was so Eric couldn’t afford to be.

“Wh-what if it’s n-not..?” Alex asked, his voice rising a whole octave.

“We don’t have time for what ifs. It will be okay.” Eric’s tone grew a little stern. He was not going to lose Alex to what ifs. There was simply no room for that.

Alex squeezed his eyes shut and tightened his grip on Eric’s hand. Eric hadn’t even realized Alex had been holding it. “Eric…” His voice was hardly audible. “I don’t...I don’t wanna die…”

“Alex, you aren’t going to die.”

“But...but I feel like..like I’m gonna…”

Eric shook his head. “You will not die. There is no way you are going to. You are not going to die. I swear that you won’t.”

“Don’t wanna die.” Alex mumbled.

Eric sighed softly. He had never seen Alex look this small and defenseless. In Vietnam he was always the strongest, toughest, and most fearless in the squad and he never backed down from any fight. Seeing him like this was a complete shock to Eric. It made him realize just how vulnerable even the strongest people can be. “Alex,” He said softly. “You are not going to die. I swear I will do absolutely everything I can to keep you alive. You’re going to make it out of here.”

A sad smile stretched over Alex’s lips and he coughed through a chuckle. “ There’s s-so much I haven’t d-done yet...s-o many guys I haven’t f-f-fucked…”

Eric smirked. Alex had confided in him about being gay when they were in Vietnam. Alex said that Eric was the only one he told about his preferences. Eric, in turn, had told Alex that he was bisexual. That was when the two first started to become close. The two found that they actually had quite a bit in common. No close family, powers they were afraid of, a sexuality that defied the norm, and quite similar personalities. They spent every minute of free time they had together as they tried to escape the horrors of Vietnam. They became an escape for each other. Eric felt attached to Alex and even though they were both stuck in this hell hole, he allowed himself the smallest bit of hope because they were together and they could at least survive long enough to make it out when help came.

“Alex, you’re going to get out of here. You and Scott and I will get out of here. The three of us will get out. I promise. You trust me?”

The blonde nodded weakly. “I do.” Alex smiled softly and whispered, “Guess what else.”

“What?”

Alex laughed softly, a little delusional and close to passing out from the pain. “Come closer.” He said, tightening his grip on Eric’s hand again. Eric leaned closer so he could hear Alex’s whispering. “I love you.” He giggled a little. Alex Summers. Giggled. Eric couldn’t know how seriously to take what Alex had just said because of how delusional Alex had become within the last few minutes. Eric couldn’t help but smile, though. As delusion as Alex might be, some part of him had to have meant those words. No one had said those words to Eric in a long time and they meant the world.

“Yeah? Do you really?” Eric asked softly, his voice nearly as small as Alex’s.

The blonde nodded, his eyes slipping closed. “I do.”

  
  


SCOTT

  
They had taken Alex from the room after nearly an hour. Scott had listened to his screams and cries, begging the whole while for them to stop and start their experiments on him instead. His pleas had been ignored and they continued to hack into Alex’s abdomen. About halfway through Scott had turned his head completely away and squeezed his eyes in an attempt to block out the painful sounds he was hearing. Finally, the screams stopped. Now instead of hearing screams he heard the sounds of pens scratching away on clipboards and the unlocking of handcuffs. Scott opened his eyes just in time to see them dressing Alex’s wounds before dragging him from the room. Scott wanted to scream after them in protest, but he knew it would do little. And if they were going to do to him what they had just done to Alex, Scott knew he would have to save his strength for an even greater fight.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Antonio gets a surprise he wasn't expecting...

ANTONIO

 

“I cannot make the experiments go any more quickly. Any faster and I would risk killing every single test subject. We cannot have that happen. Otherwise you will never get your sentinels off the ground and the mutants will stop you before you can get anything accomplished. I understand your need for results to be produced but you cannot force them.” Antonio said forcefully. He was in a conference call with Bolivar Trask and Trask was upset because the experiments on the Summers brothers were taking such a long time. There had been little progress made over the past two weeks, because Antonio couldn’t figure out how to replicate Alex’s ability to store energy. He had figured out Scott’s explosive blasts, but Alex was still a mystery. A mystery he needed to crack fast. If Antonio didn’t produce results soon then Trask would make it his personal mission to destroy him.

Antonio’s face twisted into a sneer as Trask continued to undermine his efforts. Finally, Trask was finished snapping at Antonio and abruptly hung up the phone before Antonio could get another word in. He huffed and pocketed his phone, anger churning in his stomach. Trask had taken so many of Antonio’s freedoms already and now he was belittling every single one of Antonio’s small victories. He hated Trask. He hated working under Trask. He wished he could run the operation himself and experiment at his own pace. He wanted to unlock every mutant secret and exploit them in every way he could. He hated that the only way he could get to his current position was through Trask and he hated that the only way he got his powers was through one of

Trask’s experiments. He would rather have no mutation than be stuck under the thumb of Trask.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by a searing headache. Pain ripped through his skull and brought him to his knees. Since his mutation had been unlocked through a series of unnatural experiments, he was still suffering major side effects. He experienced extreme migraines if he overused his powers, and often time the pain would last more than a day. Antonio gripped the sides of his head, fingers twisting tightly in his hair. Tears welled in his eyes. He had never had a migraine quite like this before. It felt like his skull was being ripped in half. Tears began spilling from his eyes, despite his attempts to keep them in. His face colored a brilliantly bright red as he struggled to breathe through the pain. He collapsed to all fours, sweat pouring down his face. Antonio heard his heartbeat roaring in his ears and felt blood dripping from his nose. Black spots danced in front of his eyes as he felt his arms growing weak. He finally collapsed all the way to the ground, his whole body shaking. Antonio fought to keep his eyes open, not wanting to succumb to unconsciousness. After a few more seconds of intense pain, his body gave out and he gave into the darkness.

  


Several uneventful hours passed before Antonio regained consciousness. He had passed out in his private office so no one had found him in his pained state. His body was extremely sore as he pulled himself into a sitting position. Antonio’s migraine, though, seemed to have gone completely. There was still a dull throbbing in his skull, but it was hardly painful. He scooted himself over to the closest wall and rested his shaking body against it. Antonio felt weaker than he ever had before.

“Do you feel that?” Antonio’s attention snapped to his left where a sultry voice spoke. “I bet you have never felt anything quite like it. Have you?”

“No.” The young Italian stated softly.

“Good. I like to keep things interesting.” She said with a low laugh. “You know, you’re quite the character. I wasn’t sure I would be able to bring you down. I could never get close enough to really do any damage. I was close once before, but now, oh, now I got you. I got you exactly where I want you.”

Antonio’s face contorted in confusion. “Who are you?” His voice was hardly louder than a whisper as he fought through extreme fatigue.  

She chuckled. “I would ask why you don’t know me, but if you knew me then that would mean Xena was lying to me the whole time.”

“Xena? What about her?” Antonio asked as he heard the sound of leather connecting with tile as she walked closer to him. Soon he saw leather boots and black clad legs in front of him. He would have raised his eyes to see her full figure if he wasn’t so exhausted.

“Oh yes. That beautiful girl has been work dutifully beside me for nearly three years now. Passing intel, keeping me informed on you, that sort of thing. I knew from the beginning she was good at what she did, but damn, she had you fooled. She had every bit of your trust. She became your most major general. Now that’s impressive. Don’t you agree?”

He tried to force a look of hatred on his face, but he didn’t get past a little upset. “Who are you?” He asked again, tired of her gloating.

“People call me Amora. But I like to call myself the girl who is going to bring you to your knees and take down this whole operation. I’ve been working against you every since Trask unlocked your powers. I was on the inside, hoping he would give me this position. But he overlooked me because he saw you. A man. Typical. I had to work twice as hard to get this close.” Amora shook her head, running a hand over her shaven head. “I’m almost disgusted that it took me this long to get you.”

As she was speaking and not paying much attention to him, Antonio had begun pulling himself to his feet, despite the jelly-like feeling in his legs. He clenched his fists and pushed against the wall. Just as he was pulling himself into a crouch, the searing pain returned in full strength. Amora had outstretched her hand and a red ring was glowing around the full circumference of her skull. “Oh no.” She sneered. “You are not getting away from me that easily. I have worked day and night to find you and I will take you the fuck down, Melche! Every time you thought you were suffering because of your powers, that was me! I have been inside your head since the moment you stepped into this facility! I was hoping you would give up and leave before this had to get too dirty!”

“Amora, please! Stop this! Let’s talk!” Antonio screamed, trying to hear himself over the deafening pain in his head.

“We don’t want the same thing. There is nothing to talk about. You are a disgusting thing that wants to destroy lives and better your own. You’re sickening, Antonio. I will not negotiate with a criminal.” She spat, the ring around her head glowing brighter. As the intensity of the light increased, the pain in Antonio’s head worsened. Blood poured from Antonio’s nose as Amora continued. “You are helping create monsters that will slaughter every single one of us. Every one of your mutant siblings. How could you want that? How could you support that?”

“But Xena…” He choked out.

“No! She is on my side! She was only helping you because she needed to get me in here. She knows how completely vulnerable you are. She knows you don’t have complete control of your powers. She told me that if you can’t hear yourself think then you’re basically powerless. And from what I’m seeing now, Xena was right.” She smirked. “So when I take over, this facility is going to collapse. I am going to free all the mutants and destroy all of your work. Everything you did will be forgotten and you will be remembered as a complete failure. Trask will never get what he wants. He will never build his sentinels. Never!” Amora yelled and clenched her fist tightly. Antonio slammed to the ground, his head screaming. Bruises appeared along his temples as his blood vessels began popping. Blood sprayed out of his nose, and began leaking from his ears and tear ducts. The inside of his mouth became coated with blood and soon it was pouring out over his lower lip.

“Please…” he whimpered, blood bubbling on his lip as he spoke.

Amora sneered. “You don’t deserve it.” While a final tightening of her fist, Antonio’s eyes burst and he collapsed, lifeless. Blood splattered all over his pristine white floors and Amora’s black pants. She smiled, satisfied with the outcome of her actions. She nodded and turned on her heel before stalking from the room.

“Did you do it?” She heard Xena’s familiar voice ask as soon as she entered the hallway.

Amora grinned. “I did. He won’t be bothering anyone anymore. Now come on, we have mutants to break out.” She walked a few steps to where a red button was attached to the wall. The button would set off an alarm that indicated for all non-mutant personnel to evacuate the facility. Once all non-mutants were out of the way, Amora and Xena would be unhampered as they went to free every mutant from their cells.

“Let’s do this.” Amora said as she slammed the button.  


	9. Chapter Nine

ANTONIO

       Thirty minutes of blaring and intense pain. Thirty minutes of lying in a pool of his own blood. Thirty minutes of blurry vision and fuzzy thoughts about how he would get revenge against Amora. Thirty minutes of trying to figure out who Amora even was. Thirty minutes of waiting for his newly implanted secondary mutation to kick in and heal him of his extensive injuries. 

       Finally, Antonio felt his vision start to clear and his thoughts become more precise. The muscle around his neck began to stitch itself back together and the open wounds on head closed themselves in a matter of seconds. Antonio rested on the ground for a few more moments before pulling himself up into a sitting position. The room spun for a quick second before it settled around him.

       Antonio had just pulled himself to his feet when he heard the emergency alarm blame throughout the entire facility. He cursed furiously and exited the room in a flurry. He bolted to the main security office down the hallway and found that it was completely abandoned. People were rushing about all around him; most in a confounded panic. Antonio pulled a ring of keys out of his back pocket and shuffled trough them until he found the appropriate brass key. He shoved the key into a slot on the main console and twisted it. Immediately the alarm shut off and the only sound left was the frantic shuffling of feet. Antonio then turns to the other side of the room where there is an intercom hanging from the wall. He flipped the device on and picked up the microphone. 

       "Attention. Attention, everyone - that was a false alarm. There is no mutant threat. Return to your work. There is no reason to panic. Thank you." Antonio hung up the microphone and switched off the intercom. With the panic settling, Antonio knew that he now had to focus on finding Amora and Xena. He needed to figure out exactly what Amora wanted and he needed to find out exactly what side Xena was one. He had thought that the teleporter was completely loyal to him. She had never betrayed him during all the years they had worked together. He didn't even want to entertain the thought the she was working against him this whole time. He had too much to lose if she was truly against him.

      He left the security office and began making his way down every hallway, searching desperately for Amora. He needed to find her before she was able to release any mutants or hack into any of his systems. He didn't know if she was a mutant or just a human operative. Antonio didn't know what she even wanted. She could have been sent by Trask to take over the operation, or she could have been working with a mutant task force. 

      After multiple frantic minutes of frantic searching passed, Antonio decided he would have to use a different tactic to find her. The young Italian shut his eyes and clenched his fists by his sides. He started to try and focus in on the energy that h had felt from Amora. He searched the whole complex for her lighter aura; not feeling quite as dark as the other employees' energies. Finally, he found it. Amora must have realized that Antonio wasn't as dead as she had hoped, so she was just outside of the compound - most likely to make a run for it.  _She must not be a powerful mutant, then, if she's running from me._ Antonio thought to himself with a smirk. 

       "Oh, Amooooora." Antonio called out in a sing-songy voice as he exited the compound. He saw her running in a full sprint towards the landing strip just beyond the hidden building. "Did you think you were going to get away from me that easily?" He clenched his fists again by his sides and he forced a stabbing mental pain into Amora's skull. He barked a laugh as he saw her collapse to the ground. "Ooooh you bitch, you have NO idea who you're messing with. Did you really think that you were going to get away with killing me so easily? My mutation allows me to do things that you might not even be able to imagine."

       "Fuck off, Antonio." Xena sneered as she appeared beside him and slammed a large metal bat into the back of his head. "You're just  a weak, pathetic shit who needed someone to activate your mutation for you! You're just as much human as Trask and Stryker. You're not one of us."

       Antonio released the pain from Amora and focused it in on Xena. "I'm trying to keep us alive. Xena I'm trying to keep you out of their hands. If I don't do what they ask, then they'll turn you into one of their subjects and they'll kill me and absolutely no one will be safe."

       "No one is safe anyways!" He heard the other woman scream. "You're helping them create mutant-killing monsters who are just going to kill us! You're not 'saving' Xena from anything. You're just prolonging her death."

       "You have no idea what I'm doing. You have no idea how far away from completion these monsters are. They will never be finished. It is an absolutely impossible task." Antonio sneered as he made his way towards Amora. "They don't have the technology to make this work. There is no way in any fucking hell that this works. Mutants are too powerful to ever be killed by these things. So, you shut up. You have no idea what is happening here." 

       "Whether or not the things are going to be ready, you are still torturing mutants; standing by and allowing them to be put through insane amounts of pain. You may not be killing them, but you're not helping them either. You're a mutant destroying the lives of other mutants who haven't done anything to you." Amora shouted, her face turning a vibrant red as she swung a fist towards Antonio. Her hand collided with his jaw and his head snapped back and Antonio collapsed to the ground. "You know, I may not have some mind reading mutation, but my physical mutation is pretty badass." She slammed a foot into his stomach over and over again, only stopping when she heard Xena call out to her.

       "Amora, stop! If you kill him then you're just as bad as him. Please. We just need to get out of here. There's nothing more that we can do. This goes too deep and there's too many people who could try and stop us. We don't know how many more mutants are on Stryker's side." She made her way to Amora's side and placed a delicate hand on her shoulder. "Please."

       After a drawn out hesitation, Amora finally nodded. "Okay. For you." She backed away from the body below her and looked at Xena. "Let's get out of here. There's got to be other people out there trying to free these mutants. If we can find others to help us then maybe we can come back. We can't just abandon this."

       Xena agreed. "We can come back if we find other people. We just can't do it alone."

       Amora leaned over and placed a kiss on Xena's cheek. "Let's get out of here before anyone else comes out."

       "That sounds great. I've been dying to get some sun." Xena said with a brilliant smile as the two made their way to the jet and took off from the landing strip.

 

ERIC

       "Jesus Christ, that alarm was loud." Eric muttered after the blaring alarm had been shut off. "What do you think that was for?"

       Alex shrugged. "I dunno. There was some announcement afterwards so it might have only been a test or something." He suggested, not really wanting to think too much about it. The blond had just regained most of his strength and he wasn't about to waste it thinking about some dumb alarm. 

       Eric nodded, figuring that Alex was most likely correct. The alarm had been shut off so quickly that it wasn't likely for there to actually be anything wrong. 

       The two sat in silence for a few minutes before Alex scooted a little closer to the other boy and rested his head against Eric's shoulder. Although he felt physically stronger, he was still absolutely exhausted - both physically and mentally. In a second, Alex was completely passed out, his body limp against Eric. The blond boy was radiating warmth, something Eric's body was lacking. He had been absolutely freezing for the past few days and no amount of lying in the fetal position had allowed Eric to regain that body heat. He had a feeling that one of his wounds had gotten infected and his body was reacting extremely negatively to that. Eric knew that he should probably say something to Alex, but he didn't want to worry him. Alex had enough on his mind now that his brother was also being held captive in another part of the facility. Eric figured that he would have to be taken out of the cell eventually. Then he would maybe be able to get some help for the infection. Eric didn't think that they wanted him dead, because he didn't think that there was any chance they had cracked the seat to his tattoos. 

       What felt like several more hours passed before the door to their cell opened. For the first time in days, the man with the burn scars pulls to Eric to his feet. Eric watched as Alex slumped to the ground, remaining asleep despite his rough fall. Eric was drug from the cell and brought to a sterile room where there is a beaten body on the ground. The man unlocks the inhibitor collar around Eric's neck and removed it. He points at the body. "Heal." He commands, then leaves the room, locking the door to it behind him.

       On shaking legs, Eric made his way towards the body and almost vomited when he saw extensive cuts along the person's face, all stemming from his eyes. Eric knelt beside the body and placed his fingers on the person's forehead. He hadn't actually used his powers in ages and he was a little nervous to use them. A few more moments passed before Eric finally trusted himself enough to use his powers. A soft light glowed from Eric's fingers and the injuries on the man's face began to piece themselves back together and the bruises along his arms and torso began to disappear. Nearly ten minutes went by before all of the injuries had vanished. 

        The man with the burns quickly reentered the room and wrapped his arms around Eric. "Time to go." He grumbled before ripping Eric from the room and returning him to the cell. 


	10. Chapter Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> warnings for language and more graphic violence and body horror

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it's been a year since I updated? I've been working on an original fic and school is relentless. I'm on winter break now, so hopefully I can bang out another chapter or two before all my time is consumed by tests and homework again.   
> This isn't as long as I wanted it to be, but I'm generally happy with how it turned out.  
> Don't forget to review and leave kudos! I love hearing everything that you have to say! It makes me a better writer!   
> Enjoy!!

**Alex + Scott + Antonio**

 

The alarm shook the walls of the cell and reinvigorated the headache Alex had just gotten over. He pressed himself against the wall behind him and flattened his palms against the side of his head; trying to find any relief from the stabbing pain. He felt Eric wrap his arms around his shoulders and pull him close to his chest. Alex could hardly register the world around him. Everything felt numb and dark and he couldn't even focus on the darkness around him. Finally, he felt his body give way and he passed out, the world disappearing around him. 

An hour or two later, the door to the cell slammed open and a shadowed man stood in the doorway. The light surrounding him obstructed Alex's tired vision and he couldn't make out any facial features. The man's voice, however, painted the picture entirely. 

"I've got a special experiment planned for today, Alex. Your brother has really been missing you." Antonio's sickly voice floated through the cell. Antonio walked forward and ripped a defenseless and exhausted Alex away from Eric, who knew he didn't have any other option but to comply. "And don't worry, Eric, we haven't forgotten about you." Antonio drug Alex from the room and slammed the door behind him. 

"What... what... now?" Alex muttered, his heart racing as he thought of all the things Antonio could do to him. And did he mention Scott? Alex couldn't really recall whether Antonio had or not. 

"Well, you see, Alex, you and Scott have virtually the same abilities. And, well, we don't want someone else to have a similar ability like yours and be able to destroy the power source. So, in an effort to avoid that, we want to test how your abilities effect each other and if they will ever cancel each other out. We just want to test out a couple theories. Sound good to you?" Alex remained. "You know, I try to be civil with you and this is the response that I get. You'd think kids would learn to respect their elders."

Alex kept his eyes trained on the ground, not wanting to say anything that would cause Antonio to grow any more upset with him. All he could do was trudge along in silence. The blond mutant was led down more hallways than any of the previous trips and this only caused his nerves to grow further. What kind of tests were they planning on running? Would they make him hurt Scott? Would that make Scott hurt him? He couldn't even fathom what Antonio had locked away in that psychopathic head of his. 

A few minutes later they arrived in what appeared to be an airplane hangar. The massive cement room spanned what seemed to be two American football fields. Multiple vents were positioned along the ceiling and a sprinkler system was set up. The concrete on the ground was cracked in dozens of places and there were no windows. It was clear experimenting had gone on in the room before. 

What Alex wasn't ready for was to see his brother halfway across the room with blood dripping from his face. Scott was on his knees with his hands bound before him with a thick black chord. Alex desperately wanted to call out to his brother and find out if he was okay, but he didn't want to risk anything with Antonio. Alex couldn't stand the thought of seeing his long-lost brother hurt before him. That would absolutely destroy him. 

"Scott? Scott are you still with us?" Antonio called out to the brown-haired mutant. "I wouldn't want all of our fun to end so quickly. That would be absolutely heartbreaking."

Scott raised his chin, his face unreadable due to the sunglasses obscuring much of it. "I'm going to fucking kill you, Antonio." Scott sneered, his voice dripping with murder. 

"Oh, I'm sure that you would absolutely love to, Scotty," A smile twisted onto Antonio's face when he saw Scott visibly tense at the pet name. "But, I have other plans. Rather, you have other plans. As I was explaining to little Alex over here, I don't want my Sentinels to be able to be taken out by a mutant who has similar powers to yours. So, I want to test how much one brother can stand of the other's mutation. And, yes, I know you don't want to hurt each other. Save me the sob story. But, from what my researchers have told me, you two should be able to withstand each other's mutations. So, really, this is the absolute easiest test that I could possibly be running. You two aren't going to be able to hurt each other. So, please, let's just get this over with and everyone can go home. Does that seem fair?"

"Not really, but I'm not sure we can change your mind." Scott spit.

Antonio tsked and shook his head. "Scott, that's not the kind of attitude I want you to have. I've had to deal with enough today and I'm in not mood to deal with you. If you're not going to deal this willingly then I can provide you with some incentive. I really don't want to, but I also don't want to babysit grown mutants. It's your choice."

"We're not playing your sick game." Alex snapped.

With a sharp laugh, Antonio slammed Alex to the ground. Alex's knees cracked against the hard floor and he forced himself to withhold a grunt of pain. "Alex, Alex, Alex. What you fail to realize is that I'm not asking, I'm demanding. You don't have a choice and you never will. Your mutation, your body. It all belongs to me whether you like it or not. So, you are going to play along nicely and quietly and not say no when I  _tell_ you to do things. Does that make sense to you or do I need to break it down any further?" Antonio took Alex's silence as an answer. He knelt in front of the mutant and grinned a sick grin as he motioned forward one of the guards that was standing in a shadowed corner. "We're going to have a lot of fun together. I just hope you can understand that I don't want to hurt you."

As hard as he tried, Alex could not hold back the spit that flew from his mouth onto Antonio's face. "You're a sick fucking bastard. Of course you want to hurt us. Do you think we're that fucking stupid?"

Antonio's fist flew forward and connected with Alex's jaw. "Don't talk to me like you know me,  _mutie._ You don't know the first thing about me."

The guard finally reached the kneeling mutant and snapped a pair of chains around Alex's ankles before he connected them to a ring on the ground. The guard then moved to repeat the process with Scott. Antonio waved the guard back and whispered something in his ear. A moment later the guard exited the hangar. 

"You both are forcing my hand. You're making me do something I don't want to do and it hurts. Believe me, it does. I'm just trying to do my job and you two are making it completely impossible. So, when you're begging me to stop and telling me that you'll be 'cooperative', I'm not going to believe you. I'm going to laugh at you and remind you of this very moment when you forced my hand." Antonio stood from his crouch and backed away from Alex. "Now, would you two please stand." When neither brother moved, his shot out his arms and stomped his foot. "Don't make me force you! I can, and will, use as much force as I need to get you to do whatever I want! Now stand!"

Shakily, Alex began to rise to his feet. He had experienced Antonio enough to know that the man wasn't bluffing. Then, not wanting his brother to take the abuse for his inaction, Scott rose. The chains around their ankles allowed the to comfortably stand, but restricted movement of more than an inch in any direction.

Antonio flashed a broad smile and clapped his hands together. "I'm so glad you two came around. Everything will be easier now. Maybe I won't have to use my special little motivator after all. Wouldn't that be wonderful for everyone?" Antonio scanned both their faces before stepping a few feet out of their paths. "Now, Alex, when I give the word, I want you to fire on your brother. Okay?"

Alex's jaw dropped. "What? You can't expect me to-"

"Aleeeeex, remember what we talked about. You do what I say and don't complain about it otherwise I'm going to have to get nasty on you. So, what are you going to do?"

"Nothing. I'm not going to fire on him!" Alex shouted, his face burning with rage.

Antonio heaved a dramatic sigh and raised his right hand. But, instead of pointing it directly at Alex, he pointed his palm just a few inches in front of him. Suddenly, an earsplitting crying echoed through the hangar and Alex felt his insides twist. He looked over his shoulder to see Eric writhing under the boot of a guard. A red glow began to radiate around Alex and he whipped his head back to Antonio. "Son of a bitch let him go!"

"I can't do that until you give me your word that you're going to do exactly as I say once I deactivate that collar of yours." Antonio responded, his voice eerily calm. 

Alex whipped around so he was facing Scott, panic evident on his features. "Scott..."

The older Summers shook his head. "Alex, you have to do what he says. You aren't going to hurt me."

"How do you know that?"

"I just do. Trust me."

Antonio rolled his eyes. "Well, as cute as this is, I need an answer, Alex."

Alex finally conceded. "Fine. I'll do it."

Antonio lowered his hand and Eric's screaming ceased, the noise being replaced with hoarse breathing. "I'm going to deactivate your collar in a moment and when I do you need to fire on your brother - who's collar will also be turned off. If you fire anywhere else but him then I will twist your friend's insides until they're not more than mush. Am I understood?" Silence. "Am. I. Understood?"

"Yes." Alex breathed. 

"Excellent. Let us begin."

 

 

**Raven + Hank**

 

The two mutants sat in a motel room, absolutely stuck. They had continued their search for Alex and Scott for what felt like years, but nothing had turned up. They were still as stuck as they were when the search began. They had thought multiple times about going back to Charles and begging him to help them, but in the end they concluded that would be a plan that ended in screaming and disaster. They would be worse off after a conversation with the Professor. 

"So, what do we do? We've exhausted every contact we have." Raven sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest. 

Hank shook his head and stood from his chair to stare out the motel window with her. "i have no idea. I can't think of anyone else that we could go to for help. We can't ask Magneto. We can't ask the Professor. And there aren't any other mutants who would have access to that kind of information."

Raven nodded. She had never felt so hopeless before. She knew they had to find the brothers and all the other mutants who were trapped inside of that compound. There could be hundreds of mutants trapped there being experimented on for god knows what experiments. "I mean, someone has to know something. There has to be some escaped mutant somewhere that we can get in contact with."

"I'm sure there is, but there's no way for us to find them. Neither of us are trackers and we can't exactly find one right now."

Raven was about to respond when there was a sharp knock on the motel door. Raven quickly shifted back into her human form and Hank made sure his glasses were straight and clothing was in order. "Who could that be?" Raven whispered to Hank. The young genius shrugged as he followed Raven to the door. She slowly opened the door and was shocked to see two women standing before her. "Can we help you?"

"I'm hoping so." The smaller Latina woman said. "My name is Xena and," She gestured to the woman beside her. "this is Amora."

"What can we do for you?" Hank asked.

"Well," Amora started. "Could we come in? We have some sensitive information that we don't want anyone else listening in on."

"Like what?" Raven pressed.

"Trask." Xena hissed. "We heard you're looking for his compound."

Raven's jaw almost hit the floor. How luck could they have gotten? "Yeah. Yeah we were. You guys can come on it." 

The two women followed Hank and Raven into the room and shut the door behind them, making sure it was completely locked. Raven closed the blinds and double checked that there were no suspicious cars or vans in the parking lot. She turned around and address the two new comers. "Alright. So who are you two? What're your stories?"

"We're both mutants." Xena said.

"Figured that." Hank said. "How did you two get away from the compound?"

Amora sighed and pushed a hand through her hair. "Well, neither of us were exactly imprisoned there. Xena was deep undercover as a guard and I was in there as a scientist. We've been trying to get information on the operation for years and finally caught a break."

Raven raised a curious eyebrow. "What do you guys know?"

"We know that someone named Antonio Melche is running the main operation. He's Trask's number one guy. He's conducting the experiments and making sure that everything runs smoothly." Xena explained. "We know he's using mutant abilities to build the ultimate super weapon that can combat any mutant's powers. And he's almost done."

"And he's using Alex and Scott to work out the kinks of his power source?" Raven supplied.

Amora nodded. "Exactly. The sentinels are almost finished, but we think that we have a way to stop him."

"And what's that?" Hank asked.

Amora pursed her lips and took a moment before elaborating. "Well, Antonio is a mutant. But Trask had figured out a way to block x-genes, so he didn't have access to his mutation for a long time. However, I was able to break through the blocker and start to expose Antonio's mutation. He's starting to become weak and vulnerable because he doesn't have the long term control. Soon his mutation is going to start controlling him and that's the perfect time for us to launch an attack. If he's not in control that means the guards won't be on alert and he'll never have the chance to see us coming."

"And you can get us into the compound?" Raven questioned.

"We can." Xena stated. "I still have all my key cards and I know all the access codes. It takes at least two weeks to change and codes so all of my intel will still be good."

Hank crossed his arms over his chest. "Will only the four of us be enough?"

"We have a couple other mutants on our team that can help us out. And I'm sure that any mutants we break out would be more than happy to help us take down the rest of the compound." Amora said. 

Raven shook her head, still a little doubtful. "How do we know we can trust you two? This could all just be an elaborate lie."

Amora nodded. "I understand your concern, but let me ask you this. What mutant, in their right mind, would willingly align themselves with a group of anit-mutant evil masterminds who seek to burn our entire world just for the sake of their neanderthal beliefs?"

Raven snorted. "You have a point." She looked to Hank and he nodded. "So, when do we leave?"

 


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> warnings for violence and language

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally know where I want this story to go, so the updates should come quicker! I'm not sure how many more chapters there are going to be, but there will be at least five more.   
> This chapter isn't as long as I would have liked it to be, but I wanted to post it before I headed out. Hope you enjoy! Please review <3

**Trask Industries** **Compound**

Had it not been for the chains holding him in place, Scott surely would have been knocked dozens of feet back by Alex's blast. The actual plasma didn't hurt as his body was immune to it's fiery rays, but the percussiveness of the blast had him reeling. However, once the initial shock-wave had passed, the smaller ones that came after felt like nothing. He had had a feeling that Alex's mutation wouldn't have been able to hurt him, but he never quite imagined anything like this. Some of the plasma was being almost deflected off of his body, but some of it was being absorbed into his skin. He could feel the absorbed plasma strengthening the heat behind his eyes, but that was about the only side effect. A few minutes of firing passed before Antonio called for Alex to stop and the plasma ceased to stream from the younger Summers. 

"That was incredible!" Antonio exclaimed as he lightly applauded for Alex. "I knew you would be unharmed, Scott, but I didn't think your body was going to absorb any of the blast. Oh, Alex, I'm so proud of you. You've exceeded every one of my expectations. I knew a little bit of motivation would help. I can't wait to see what's going to happen next. Today will be the day we complete the Sentinel project." He turned to Scott. "Now, Scott, it's your turn. Take off those glasses and show me what you can do."

Scott clenched his fists and glared at Antonio. "Untie my hands and I will." 

"Do you really need your hands? Because I don't know if I can trust you with your hands. You've got a mean right hook and I don't want to risk getting too close to you."

Scott smirked. "Does that mean you're afraid of me? What a turn of events."

Antonio rolled his eyes. "I'm not afraid of you. I just don't want to take the chance that you'll do something you'll regret."

"Whatever you say. Either way, I'm not doing what you say until you untie my hands. So, you untie me or we're going to have a problem."

"I'm not untying your hands." Antonio persisted.

"Untie them." Scott demanded.

"I don't think you're in any position to be making demands." 

Scott set his jaw. "I'm not going to try anything. Just untie my hands."

Antonio raised a hand again towards where Eric was pinned. "I'm giving you one more chance, Scott. Fire on your brother or the boy over there is going to be in worlds of pain. It's your choice."

"Just do it, Scott. It's not going to hurt me. But, he will hurt Eric." Alex pleaded. 

"Alex come on." Scott snapped. 

Alex shook his head. "Scott, I get it, but you have to do what he says. I'm begging you." 

"I need my hands." 

"No you don't!" Alex shouted. "Just fucking shoot me! We don't have time to debate this! Fucking shoot me!"

"You're brother's right, Scott." Antonio called. "You don't have time."

"Jesus Christ! I can't do it!" Scott shouted. 

Antonio clenched his fist and the same pained screams from before ripped through the air. "Scott! come on!" Alex screamed. "Just shoot me!"

Finally, all the screaming gets to Scott and, with his hands still bound, ripped off his glasses and opened his eyes in Alex's direction. The moment red beams were flying towards Alex, Antonio released his hold on Eric and watches, absolutely fascinated, as the beams slam into Alex. Alex is pushed back by the force of the blast. But, just as what happened with Scott, the beams didn't hurt him. Unlike his brother, Alex was absorbing all of the plasma. Alex clenched his fists as the plasma poured into his body. But, the energy wasn't gross and heavy like it had been when it was coming out of the nozzle a few days (weeks?) ago. This energy was clean and light and it made Alex feel stronger rather than heavier. 

A few more minutes passed before Antonio called for Scott to stop. Scott squeezed his eyes shut and put his glasses back on. "Very good, Scott. I'm glad you decided to come around." He looked at Alex. "And you. You did a great job. I'm actually very impressed with how you take in Scott's plasma as opposed to the artificial plasma from earlier this week. How are you feeling?"

"Pissed, but otherwise fine." Alex ground out. His breathing was labored from concentrating on the plasma that had been absorbed into his body, but he wasn't in any pain. 

"Excellent. Now, I need to go discuss our findings with some of my coworkers. You two are going to need to play nice while I'm gone." He raised a small black button in his hand and pressed it, reactivating the collars around their necks. "See you both in a few minutes." Antonio sauntered from the room and slammed the large doors to the hangar closed behind him.

Alex looked over at Eric who was lying unconscious on the ground. The guard had left with Antonio, but the mutant had black out from the earlier pain. Once he realized that Eric was still breathing, Alex turned his attention to Scott. "How are you doing?" He asked.

"I've definitely been better." Scott commented. 

Alex snorted. "Yeah, me too. This is the best I've felt since I've been here, though."

"I'm sorry I couldn't get to you sooner. It took forever for your letter to get to me." 

"I'm surprised that you even got it. I didn't know if you were still going to be at the address I was given."

"How did you manage to get it?" Scott inquired. 

"I asked one of the mutant trackers who I was in Vietnam with to track you down and get me your address."

"How did you even know I was still alive?"

"Intuition?"

Scott chuckled and nodded. "Sounds about right."

Alex sighed and pushed his hands through his sweat soaked hair. "How did Antonio get you?"

"Well, I was with Hank and Raven -"

"You found them?" Alex interrupted. 

"I did. They're probably still searching for us. But, anyways," He continued. "They had left me behind while they went to follow a lead and I got restless and tried to follow after them, but I got lost and some girl got me. I don't know her name."

Alex smirked. "That's the most Summers story you possibly could have told."

Scott smiled sadly and shook his head. "You know, I never stopped looking for you after we got separated. I asked around at every foster home and I talked to my social worker every chance I got about where you were and where you might be headed. I couldn't stand not knowing where you were. But, then, one day I lost you. My social worker wouldn't tell me where you were anymore and no one is the system had any more information on you."

"How long ago was that?"

"I'm not sure exactly, but you were probably fourteen when they stopped telling me stuff."

Alex held back a laugh as while he shook his head. "That makes sense."

"What does?"

"It was around then when I started to figure out my mutation. I started to run away and the system started to get pissed at me. A couple years later I blew up some building and got arrested."

"Are you serious?"

Alex let out a pitiful laugh. "Yeah. I spent most of my time in solitary because I had absolutely no control of my mutation, so every time I got mad I would just shoot off rings in all directions. I almost killed a couple inmates while I was there. Those were some of the worst years of my life. Almost as bad as the shit hole we're in now." 

"I'm sorry. I wish I would have found you sooner."

Alex shrugged. "There was nothing you could have done. And eventually the Professor found me and helped me learn to control my mutation. And then I ended up in Vietnam and now I'm here. So, I guess things really worked out in the end."

Scott shook his head. "I would have been eighteen before you went to jail. I could have become your legal guardian. I could have done something to help you."

"You had your own mutation to deal with. We just would have been two scared kids with no control of our powers. It wouldn't have worked out for either of us. Rather than one of us being in solitary it would have been both of us."

"You don't know that."

Alex snorted. "I kind of do. Especially because your mutation is always on. You can't make it stop. So, don't tell me that everything would have been all perfect and fine for a kid with anger management issues and a hardly adult blind mutant. It would have been an absolute disaster of a situation."

"I might have been able to keep you out of this place."

"Scott, stop!" Alex shouted. "Your 'what ifs' won't help us now. I get that you feel guilty, but I really don't need your self pity right now It's the most unappealing thing you could possibly be doing."

Eric groaned from the floor a few feet away from them. "Ugh, I agree with him. It's really ruining the mood. And it's quite unattractive, too."

"Who even are you?" Scott snapped at the tattooed mutant. 

"I'm better for Alex than you, that's for sure."

Alex smirked. "Scott, that's Eric. He was in the mutant squad with me in Vietnam and we've been locked up ever since we got here."

Scott rolled his eyes and looked at Alex. "I'm just trying to make things better between us."

"Everything is fine between us." Alex retorted. "There's nothing that could possibly be wrong between us. I've only just met you again. Unless you're trying to make up for all the times you stole my food as a child, the I'm not really in the mood to hear your sob stories. I'm in enough pain as is." 

Scott went to reply, but quickly shut his mouth. He didn't want to further the tension between him and and his younger brother. He could see why Alex was upset, but Scott just didn't know what to do about it. This wasn't exactly the Hallmark movie family reunion where they ran slow-motion into each others arms with tears streaming down their cheeks. No, this was a heat of the moment holy shit I haven't seen you in a decade, but haha I'm your brother kind of reunion. There wasn't time for pleasantries. 

Alex sighed and sunk to his knees, his body too tired to support him any more. He hadn't sleep in days and his body was still throbbing from the events of the past weeks. He felt the world around him start to blur and he could hardly hold his head up anymore. He heard both Scott and Eric calling his name, but his eyes couldn't remain open any longer. Within a few seconds, the world faded away and all he knew was darkness. 


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very sorry that this chapter took such a long time. Work, school, and my other novel has completely taken over my life. I'm excited to say that I finally have time to upload a few chapters.   
> As always - this story is not Beta-read, so don't be afraid to address any glaring grammatical errors.   
> .  
> .  
> .  
> Warnings in this chapter for violence and (as always) language

RAVEN + HANK

"That is one heavily fortified compound." Hank muttered as the four of them stood in the wood a few feet front of a military grade compound. He looked passed Raven to Amora and Xena. "How do you plan on getting us in there? I know you can portal, but will that work to get us in there? This place has to be fortified with power blockers, right?"

Xena shook her head, "Not in the way that you're thinking. Since there are mutants working in the facility they couldn't instant blockers into the mainframe. All of the captured mutants have collars that prevent them from using their abilities."

"So, you can still use yours?" Raven asked.

Xena nodded, "I can."

"What's the plan once we get in there?" Raven asked. "Are planning on only getting Alex and Scott out or do we go for the others, too?"

"We don't have the fire power to get all the mutants out." Amora said. "As much as I want to see them all freed as soon as possible, it would be suicide."

"There may actually be a solution to that problem," Xena stated. "There's a master control panel that would deactivate all the collars and open all the cells. I'm not sure how far any of them would make it, but it would be better than doing nothing."

Hank nodded, "Would you be able to get to the panel?"

"I would. It's only locked by key card and I've still got mine on me." She said.

"We ready to go, then?" Amora asked. The other three nodded and Amora turned her attention to Xena, "Let's move."

* * *

INSIDE THE COMPOUND

Eric painfully pushed himself off the ground. He wrapped an arm around his ribs and shuffled his way over to Alex before collapsing onto the ground next to him. 

"How is he doing?" Scott called.

Eric quickly moved to check Alex's pulse and did a once over of his body, "I don't know. He's exhausted and the wounds on his stomach don't look good."

"I didn't hurt him... did I?" Scott asked.

Eric shook his head, "No. All of what happened was because of Antonio."

"That son of a bitch..." Scott muttered. He yanked on the chains around his ankles. "If only we could get these off."

Eric was about to respond to Scott when he saw blood pooling on the ground below Alex. "Oh my god..."

"What is it?"

His heart began to race and he ran his hands over his face, "His stomach... the stress must've... oh my god..."

"Is there anything you can do?"

Eric turned to look at Scott, ignoring the pain in his ribs, "Did Antonio ever switch your collars back on?"

Scott wracked his brain, trying to remember whether Antonio had or not. After a minute of thinking he shook his head, "No. I don't think so. Why?"

Eric moved over to Scott as quickly as he could. "Can you cut the bracelet off my ankle? I can heal him, but mine is still activated."

Scott stiffened, "I can try, but I can't promise to get it on the first try. My aim isn't perfect."

"That's fine. I can handle a couple of plasma burns. I just need to be able to heal him."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Do it now before I change my mind."

Scott nodded and waited for Eric to position his ankle within his line of sight. "Ready?" Scott asked. Eric nodded and Scott removed his glasses. Eric immediately cried out and shouted, "Down! Move your eyes down!" Scott quickly readjusted his position per Eric's instructions. After another minute and a few more screams, the metal bracelet finally snapped off and fell to the ground. Scott slammed his eyes shut and pushed his glasses back on his face. His heart almost stopped when he saw Eric's shredded ankle, "Christ..."

"It's fine." Eric ground out. "I'll live. Now get those chains off your ankles." He turned and started to crawl back towards Alex, his leg trailing blood behind him. He forced himself to remain upright once he reached the blond mutant. He maneuvered Alex so he was laying on his back and Eric almost retched at the sight of Alex's mangled stomach. It looked like it had been crudely stitched together and the stress from the mot recent test had torn the thread. Eric placed his shaking palms against Alex's torn skin and focused his energy into the caduceus tattoo on his left palm. He felt the skin under his palm begin to warm and the wounds on Alex's stomach begin to stitch themselves together. Alex's blood now completely coated Eric's forearms and he began to fear for Alex's life. It would be nearly impossible to come back from losing so much blood. "Come on, Alex." He muttered. The wounds were now completely closed, now he just needed to wait for him to wake up.

"Alex?" Eric turned to see four people standing in the doorway of the room. He recognized Xena instantly, but was surprised to see her blink away almost immediately. 

"Who are you?" He asked.

A tall, lanky kid - who looked no older than twenty five - stepped forward, "My name is Hank -" He pointed to the blue girl next to him. "This is Mystique -" He pointed to the other woman beside him. "And this is Amora. We're here to get you out."

"Why were you working with Xena?" Eric demanded,

"She's trying to help you." Mystique explained. "She's been working against Antonio this whole time."

"Why should I trust you?" Eric snapped.

"Eric, it's okay." Scott called from the other end of the room. "They're X-Men. If they trust Xena then she's good."

Mystique rushed over to Scott who was just shaking off his second shackle. She grasped his wrists and helped him to his feet, "Are you okay?"

Scott nodded, "Yes. I'm fine. They didn't get to experiment on me all that much. Nothing that would kill me, anyways. It's Alex that we need to get out of here." He did a slight double take. "Wait. How did you guys get in here? How are you going to get us out? There are hundreds of mutants in here. We need to get them out."

The blue mutant shook her head, "Scott, don't worry about that. Xena has a plan to try and get as many mutants out of here as possible. She's a teleporter, so she's going to be able to get us out of here. Right now you just need to keep yourself calm. We need you ready in case we need to fight off anything. And Alex needs you to be an older brother. If he sees you freaking out then he will too. And, from what I can see, his position is fragile enough as it is."

"Okay." He whispered. He made his way over to Eric and crouched beside him. "How is he doing?"

Eric sighed and shook his head, "He's still unconscious. The blood loss is going to be a lot to come back from. We need to get him out of here. If anything else happens to him... I don't know if I'll be able to bring him back from it."

"Xena should be back any minute," Amora stated. She and Hank had made their way over. She looked to Eric, "Did Antonio mention that he would be back at any point?"

"I'm not sure. He wasn't gone for long before the four of you showed up. So, I can't imagine that he would be running back here in the time it takes Xena to do whatever she's doing."

A sadistic laugh came from the door leading into the room, "Well. It seems you imagined wrong."


	13. Thirteen

Alex’s POV

 

He thought he had died for a minute. Numbness overtook him, all his saw was darkness, and the dull buzz around him disappeared completely. His chest stopped rising and his heart slowed. His entire body just about stopped until… it didn’t. He began to hear whispers floating around him and colored spots started to dance behind his eyelids. His chest felt heavy, but it was moving. He tried to open his eyes, but he couldn’t focus his energy to completing the simple task. He was aware of a throbbing somewhere in his body, but the fog in his brain prevented him from recalling what could be the cause of the sensation. 

Slowly, Alex began to feel the stinging sensation of blood flow returning to the tips of his fingers. The stinging trekked up his arms and across his chest. Then, it began in his toes and rocketed up his legs. His teeth pressed together and a small groan escapes from his lips as the painful throbbing in his body intensified into a stabbing pain in his stomach. His eyes snapped open when he felt someone jolt his head. The light in the room almost blinded him, but after several moments of blinking the room cleared completely. His heart sped up instantly when he realized where he was - his panic only increasing when he heard Antonio’s voice echoing through the room. 

Alex felt a hand press against his shoulder and looked up to see Eric above him. He barely heard the other mutant whisper, “Keep still” as Antonio continue to speak.

“I am actually rather impressed. Both that these three buffoons were able to get into my compound and also that you two were able to figure out a way to escape. It is rather unfortunate about that one, however,” Alex could almost feel Antonio pointing his way. “I was expecting him to last a little longer than this. He is certainly weaker than I thought he was going to be. Now,” Antonio clapped his hands together. “All of you can either surrender yourselves to me now, or I can call in my nasty reinforcements and we can do this the ugly way. And as much as I don’t want to damage my new merchandise, I can’t be letting you go.”

“I can’t believe you would even think we would go nicely.” Alex almost broke his stone composure when he heard Raven’s familiar sneer. “So, do your worst. We’re not going with you.”

Silence fell on the room for a moment and Alex could only assume that Antonio was making some sort of movement to call in the reinforcements he spoke of. The silence was only broken by someone screaming, “Hank!” Hank shouting, “Scott!” and Scott screaming, “Alex!”. Alex opened his eyes once again to see Scott ripping his glasses from his face to shoot a beam directly at Antonio. Alex forced himself to his knees, adrenaline masking the pain in his body. He forced his arms straight out in front of him and fired two streams of plasma in line with Scott’s. He grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the screams coming from Antonio. 

A few more seconds passed before Alex heard Eric calling to him, “Come on, Alex! He’s done. Antonio is finished. We need to get out of here.”

Alex dropped his arms and sucked in several deep breaths, trying to keep himself from focusing on what he had just done. “How are we getting out of here?”

“Me.” 

Alex turned to see Xena standing next to Raven. “Can we-”

Eric nodded, “We can trust her. She turned off the mutant defense systems and opened all of the cells so all the other mutants that are here can get out. She and Amora are going to get us out of here. You’ve just got to stay with me, okay?”

“Yeah, I can do that.” Alex muttered, the fatigue starting to creep back into his body, his legs weak underneath him. 

“Xena, we need to get him out of here first. I think I hear people coming towards us.” Eric said, his arms wrapped around Alex’s midsection in an attempt to keep him upright. 

Xena strode over to the two of them and placed her hands on their shoulders. She closed her eyes and immediately they were whisked to the outside of the compound. Alex slumped against Eric as Xena whisked herself back to the others. His head began to pound and his hands crept to his stomach, “What… happened?”

Eric tightened his grip around Alex, slowly kneeling to the ground, trying to keep the weight off of Alex’s legs, “The stress from what Antonio had you do broke open the bang up stitching job they did on your stomach. I was able to heal most of it, but you’re just going to be wobbly for a bit. So, you’re just going to hang onto me for a bit, okay?” Alex weakly nodded and Eric continued to talk in an effort to keep the blond mutant awake, “The others are going to be out in just a few seconds. And once we’re away from here you’re going to be with your brother again. Everything is gonna be peachy.”

“Ya’know I don’t like peaches…” Alex slurred.

Eric grinned and shook his head, “Something I will never understand.” Eric shook Alex’s shoulder, “Come on. Keep your eyes open for me. Just another minute.”

Seconds later, just as Eric had predicted, Xena reappeared with Hank, Raven, Amora, and Scott. She staggered for a moment, but Amora caught her. “Xena needs time before she tries to blink that many people. It’s usually just her, so this took a lot more of her energy.” Amora explained. 

“Okay. We can take a minute to rest and make sure some of the mutants get out okay.” Raven said. “We should take cover in the woods just beyond the compound, though. We don’t want them spotting us. Not with Alex in this condition.”

“Agreed.” The confirmation came from Hank. “There is a spot we can go to right through the trees there. It looks clear enough, but with enough coverage.”

“Sounds good.” Raven said. “Eric, are you good to keep up with Alex? Your ankle looks bad.”

Eric shook his head, “I’ll be fine. Can’t even feel it.”

“Let me help you.” Scott said as he knelt down and wrapped one of Alex’s arms over his shoulders. “We’ll move faster that way.”

Normally, Eric would argue with Scott about being able to carry his own load, but he bit his tongue - realizing this was not the time nor place, “Okay.” He shifted his weight to wrap Alex’s other around his own shoulders. “Be careful lifting him up. His stomach is still weak.”

Scott nodded and gently rose to his feet. The two followed after the others, making sure to keep Alex suspended enough to prevent his legs from dragging on the ground. Alex was conscious enough to sort of stumble along between them, but he was still relying heavily on the people supporting him. 

“Xena, How long are you going to need to recover?” Raven asked once they were settled in the small clearing.

“Just a few minutes,” Xena answered. “I only need to catch my breath - especially if I’m going to make the jump with all of us at the same time. That one is really going to wipe me out and we only have one shot at it.”

“Shh, people are coming out of the compound.” Hank whispered forcefully. “Some of them are definitely mutants. Holy...shit. Some of them look in really bad shape. Should we try and help them?”

“We don’t have the resources to help them right now,” Raven countered. “We’re hardly strong enough as it is. We would only help get those mutants killed. I know how much you want to help them, but that isn’t smart. Not now.”

Hank sighed, but relented. “You’re right. We did all we could for them.”

The group sat in silence or the next few minutes, keeping a close eye on the fleeing mutants. Xena finally broke the silence, “I’m ready to go, and we shouldn’t sit here any longer. There are some mutants coming towards us and that means there may be guards coming our way… which it’s interesting that we haven’t seen any come out…”

“That may be why,” Raven said as smoke began to float towards them. “Someone started a fire. They’re probably trying to put it out, or save themselves. And who knows what else the mutants still in there are doing to them.”

“Well, I don’t want to find out.” Xena said as she moved to the middle of this group. “Everyone try to touch my arms. I don’t want anyone getting lost in the jump.” Everyone started to move so they had a hand on some part of Xena’s arms. Scott adjusted his position so Alex’s fingers were on Xena’s bicep. “Everyone ready?” Xena asked. They all nodded and Xena sucked in a steadying breath. “Let’s go.”


	14. Fourteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully, I'll get the next chapter up before another month passes, but here you go. I quite enjoyed writing this one. I'm excited to go more in depth with Scott and Alex in the next chapter. As always, please leave comments or kudos if you feel so moved.

**Third POV**

 

The group returned to the Institute after a full day of teleportations and resting periods. Scott had taken on Alex’s full weight after Eric’s ankle grew too severe to support more than himself. He stayed at the back of the group with Amora and Xena while Raven stepped forward to push the large wooden doors open. Raven strode into the mansion, followed close behind by Hank and a limping Eric. Scott, Amora, and Xena entered when they heard Raven call, “Hey, Charles, we’re home!”

“Do you think provoking him is really the best idea?” Hank asked. “He was angry enough when you were just standing on his doorstep.”

Raven snorted, “Yeah, fuck him. We’ve got two people in desperate need of medical attention and I’ve got a whole lot of dirt on Trask Industries. I’m not leaving until he we get them help and he listens to what I have to say.”

“I thought this Charles guy was supposed to be some sort of hero.” Eric stated as he walked further into the main foyer. 

Hank sighed, “He was… once. I’m going to go see if he’s in his office.” He moved forward and started up the stairs towards the office. 

“Is there anywhere I can lay Alex down?” Scott asked. “He’s body’s starting to shake really bad, he needs to lay down.”

Raven moved to guide them into a living space, but a voice stopped her. “Don’t! Don’t move him anywhere!”

Heads snapped to a hallway to their left. Charles Xavier stood, light from the back shadowing his face. “Get out of my house.” He snapped. 

“Charles, we need to get Alex help. He just needs a day. Please.” Raven pleaded. 

“Find somewhere else.” 

Raven crossed her arms over her chest, anger and frustration radiating from her body, “You can’t keep turning your back on us, just because you turned your back on yourself. Alex almost died in the same facility that killed Sean and Angel. These other three,” She gestured to Amora, Xena, and Eric. “are all victims of that place. We may have stopped whatever they were doing, but right now we need to regroup. Collect ourselves. Figure out what the fuck we’re going to do next so that Trask doesn’t wipe us out! What satisfaction do you get out of watching us die?”

Charles looked to the three mutants he didn’t know, “Who are you?” He asked Amora.

“My name is Amora. Telepath of sorts. I’ve been working for months to break into the facility.”

He shifted his attention to the girl next to her, “And you?” 

“Xena. Teleporter. I was undercover in the facility while Amora planned the break out. I worked alongside Antonio Melche, trying to figure him out.”

“Wait.” Charles said. “Did you say Antonio Melche?”

Xena nodded, “I did.”

“Mother of God, and you made it out of there alive?” Charles asked.

“Only because of him. From what I heard he broke Scott out of his chains so they could take him out.” She said, looking over at Eric.

“What’s so special about you?”

“My name is Eric. My tattoos give me access to a range of abilities. I was a private with Alex in Vietnam. We were held separately for a while, but then moved to a cell together.” 

“Who gave you those tattoos?” Charles inquired, an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

Eric sucked in a deep breath, his body shuddering violently, “I hardly… think that’s relevant.”

Charles hummed and shook his head, “Maybe. We’ll get back to that.” He turned his attention back to Raven. “Where’s Hank?”

“He was looking for you. I don’t know what’s keeping him.” Raven stated.

“I can’t find -” Hank stopped in the middle of the staircase when his eyes land on Charles. “Oh. There he is.”

Charles shifted his attention to Hank and then back to Raven. “You’ve got one day. The infirmary is still set up if you would like to go there and take care of your wounded. I would like to talk to Amora and Xena, however. I would like to know more about what happened with Antonio.”

  
  


**Xena + Amora’s POV**

 

Charles escorted Xena and Amora to his office, wanting to talk to them in private without Raven interrupting with her own version of the story. Charles indicated two chairs on one side of his desk, “Please, sit.” He walked around the desk to rest in his own chair. Once the they were all settled, Charles said, “So, Xena, would you please walk me through the time you spent with Antonio? How did you get to be so close with him?”

Xena cleared her throat and shifted uncomfortably in her chair, “Well, I started as just a guard. They were looking for a mutant task force who would remain loyal to Trask and his facility. We were promised eventual protection from the Sentinels if we did what they said and followed orders. I, of course, knew that was a lie. They would never keep a promise like that. Plenty of other scared mutants, however, believed it. They quickly adopted their roles as guards and really abused their powers.” She flinched at the memory, but by-passed whatever she was feeling. “Anyways, I worked my way up through the ranks, proving my loyalty over and over again. They started trusted me with more classified information and then Antonio caught wind of what my powers were. He became obsessed with the fact that I could teleport and, man, he used me. I ran errands for him, brought mutants to and from experimental sites, got him fucking coffee when he needed it. It was the most disgusting I’ve ever felt.”

“Did he confide in you anything about his mutation, or, lack thereof?” Charles interrupted when Xena paused.

She thought for a moment, tightening her ponytail as she did so. “He didn’t talk about it a lot, because it was an incredibly sore subject, but this is what I do know. He was a close associate of Trask’s when he was younger. His mutation didn’t reveal itself until late in his life and Trask had yet to develop his mutant identification technology, so neither of them knew what he would turn out to be. Antonio was in Trask’s highest confidence. Trask was a lot of the brains and Antonio was tasked with being a front man. When Antonio’s mutation developed, however, he couldn’t control it and Trask discovered it almost immediately. I’m not sure of the details about what happened, but I can assume that Trask didn’t want Antonio to betray him, so he made some sort of deal with Antonio and the two stayed partners.”

Charles’s brow pulled together in confusion, “Why would Antonio stay with someone like Trask? Didn’t he try to block his X-Gene?”

Xena shrugged, “I’m not sure why, but, yes. He was temporarily able to block Antonio’s X-Gene which blocked his telepathy for a while. It obviously didn’t last. So, Trask must have convinced Antonio that what he did was just a step in the right direction for the greater good of humanity. But, I couldn’t tell you for sure.”

Charles nodded, musing over the new information for a few minutes. Then, he looked to Amora, “And what did you say your mutation was?”

Amora brushed her hair off her shoulders and sat up straighter, “Well, people like to classify it as a type of telepathy because it has to deal with the brain, but really it’s more of a nervous system control. I’m able to activate certain neurons within the body to cause pain, hunger, excitement, arousal, and more. I am able to recreate any type of physical response to stimuli.”

“Fascinating,” Charles muttered. “And you’ve been working with Xena for how long?”

“For a few years. We first discovered what Trask was planning on doing when the war in Vietnam broke out. We noticed large groups of mutants being drafted and not returning. This normally wouldn’t be anything to talk about, but their deaths weren’t recorded either, so it raised a few eyebrows. Xena spent time going back and forth between our apartment and campgrounds in Vietnam in an attempt to gather information from the mutants who had been drafted, put into “Mutant Squads”, and then rounded up in contamination tents to be shipped back to America and to Trask Industries. We gave all the mutants we found in Vietnam our contact information in hopes that at least one of them would escape, so we could get more answers. Finally, less than a year ago, someone did. We got the location of the facility and that led to Xena becoming a guard there. We knew we didn’t have the firepower to take them out by ourselves, so we knew we needed to give our plan time to unfold. While Xena worked her way up the ladder inside, I tried to find any mutants to help us. We had no way to contact you or any of the mutants from Cuba, because you had fallen off the grid, and most of the others we met with were too scared. They didn’t want to “rock the boat”. I tried to go in solo to get to Antonio, but wasn’t successful at all. He was too powerful to beat me on my own. Then, we ran into Raven and Hank out of pure luck. We couldn’t find anyone to join our crusade, but we had plenty of mutants ready to be our eyes and ears. Someone had spotted them in a motel. Xena met up with me and I told her that we finally had some sort of a plan and that it had to be now or never. 

“Since she had spent so much time with Antonio, she knew how the system worked. She had keys to get in almost anywhere and she knew the control panels like the back of her hand. Once Antonio was distracted by his experiment, she got into the control room, unlocked all the cells and we got out of there.”

Once Amora was finished with her summary of events, Charles asked, “Did Antonio make it out?”

Amora shook her head, “She did not. Alex and Scott saw to that.”

For a second it looked as though the world was lifted off of Charles’s shoulders, but then a darkness took him back over. “How far back do you think that pushed their projects?”

Xena took with question, “Considering the fact that they were trying to get a power source out of Alex, I’d say it pushed them back months. I don’t think they got nearly enough information out of him to accurately construct anything.”

“What type of experiments did they perform?” Charles pressed.

She tightened her lips, obviously uncomfortable with the question, “Well, they spent a lot of time trying to figure out where his power was centrally located. They… they cut into him stomach… into his chest… they thought once they found the source they could replicate it. Antonio also discovered that Alex was able to absorb intense amounts of natural and cosmic energy, ultimately why Antonio thought he would make an excellent power source, so he ran plenty of tests trying to see how much Alex could absorb. Then, when Scott came along, he figured he had found an outsource for the energy absorbed by Alex’s X-Gene. He had only just started experimenting on the both of them when we showed up and got them out of there.”

Charles pushed a hand through his ratty hair, “My God…”

“And they weren’t even there for that long,” Xena said. “Some were there for years. Being experimented on to no end. They even waited two weeks before starting on Alex. Eric was…” She swallowed thickly. “They couldn’t locate the mutant who gave him the tattoos, so they tried to work backwards on them. He was almost… almost s-s-skinned alive when I first met him… Christ if you don’t try to help keep mutants safe…” 

“I don’t… I’ve already lost so many people.” Charles muttered. “I can’t risk losing anymore.”

“Charles,” Amora stated. “You almost lost Alex - whom I am guessing you knew well. You almost lost Hank. You almost lost Raven. And, I know you don’t know them, but you almost lost Scott and Eric. Even if you just attach your name to what we are trying to do, that would be enough. It would be enough to give mutants everywhere hope. They had practically given up when we went to them. So many asked if we would be working with the ‘Mutant from Cuba’. And they meant you. They trust you and they don’t even know you. You don’t need to give us an answer right now. We understand what you’ve lost. But I can give you my contact if you change your mind.”

He hesitated, heart beating loudly in his chest. “I’ll consider it.”

Amora smiled warmly, glad to have gotten through even in the slightest, “Do you have something I could put my contact on?”

“I don’t think I’ll be needing it.”

“What do you mean?” Amora asked.

“I’ve got Cerebro. That’s all the contact I need.” 

  
  


**Eric’s POV**

 

Everything about being in the mansion felt wrong. He felt just as trapped as he had in the facility with Antonio digging a knife into him. His skin crawled and Charles - the mutant who he thought would have been able to solve all his problems - was a coward. He sat on the edge of a hospital bed, keeping his eyes locked on the ground because he didn’t like all the stark white around him. It looked like the labs. Raven had heavily bandaged his ankle and his body had shook the entire time she did so. She had then told him to lay down and rest, but he hadn’t listened. He didn’t want to risk sleeping and wake up to find it had all been a dream. An incredible illusion whipped up by Antonio’s sadistic mind. 

Raven and Hank had stepped out of the infirmary to give them a little bit of time to themselves. Then, Scott had left in an attempt to find a bathroom in the massive house, leaving Alex and Eric alone. Alex was on the bed next to him, a thin sheet pulled over his legs. He was sleeping lightly, but his skin was still pale and sweat glistened across his face and chest. They had removed his shirt to properly assess the wounds on his stomach. All that was left now were purple bruises and a bit of swelling. Eric had healed him as much as he could, but his body was exhausted now. Healing something that fatal had stripped him of all his energy. He groaned and tried to unfold his body so he could lay down, but nothing would move. His joints protested everything he did and blood pounded in his ears. All he could focus on were screams, distant memories of pain rocketing through his body. He body shook, sweat dripped off the tip of his nose, and he couldn’t breathe until -

“Eric?”

Alex’s raspy voice cut through the screams, momentarily grounding him. He raised his head to look at the blond mutant laying next to him, “Alex, are you feeling okay?”

An attempted laughed forced a series of coughs from Alex’s chest, “I’m not okay, but I’m better. Where are we?”

“We’re back at that mutant institute.”

Alex’s face fell, “What?”

“Yeah. That guy, Charles Xavier, is here.”

“Fuck me.” Alex muttered. “I never thought I’d be back here.”

Eric’s brow furrowed, “No good memories here?”

Alex fell silent for a few minutes, his eyes misted over, “No. The only good thing this place ever did for me was giving me control of my mutation. When I got drafted… I didn’t even hesitate. I didn’t want to be here and I had nowhere else to go.”

Eric pressed his lips together. Not wanting to pry any further he asked, “Do you want to see Scott?”

Tears tracked down Alex’s face, but his eyes filled with new hope, happiness almost, “Scott’s here? He made it? He’s alive?”

“He is. I can go get him.”

“Please.”

Eric nodded and pushed himself off the bed, not giving his body time to register the pain and exhaustion that the actions brought. He pushed through the stinging in his ankle as he walked into the hall. He quickly found Scott heading back towards the infirmary, “Scott. Alex is awake and he would really like to see you.” 

Scott’s face changed much as Alex’s had. His muscles tensed and the relaxed as he rushed passed Eric into the infirmary. Eric stepped through the doorway in time to see Alex sit forward and throw his arms around Scott’s shoulders. Scott leaned down and wrapped his arms around Alex’s chest. Alex had completely broken down, his chest heaving with tears streaming down his face. 

“I never… I thought… I thought you were… you were dead. S-s-someone pulled your… your address for me in Vietnam and I… Scott I didn’t… I didn’t even… even know…” Alex stumbled over his words, sobs choking his throat.

“I know. I know, Alex. But, I’m back. We’ll figure more of this out when you’re completely better, but I’m just… so fucking happy to see you again. I always figured you were going to be the heroic one.” Scott responded, his voice tight like he was crying as well.

Alex snorted and shook his head, “I’m not hero, but thanks.”

Scott laughed, “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.” Alex whispered back as he buried his face in his brother’s shoulder.

Eric leaned in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest, small smile tugging at his lips. For a moment, everything was right. Everything was good.  


	15. Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was so excited to write this chapter. I finished it in less than two hours. Hopefully, the next couple will come as quickly.   
> Warning for some language later on because the Summers brothers have no filters.

**Scott + Alex’s POV**

 

Contrary to what Charles had originally said, the mutants stayed in the mansion for over a week, so Alex could properly recover and they could share all the information they had discovered about Trask and the Sentinel project. Xena and Amora had gone in and out of the mansion, but everyone else hadn’t left. Charles had kept mostly to himself, choosing to hide himself away than risk any more confrontations. Raven had also left him alone - still not understanding his reasoning for leaving them on their own, but not wanting to apply any more pressure to the wound. Alex and Eric had spent a lot of time together, both of them able to ground each other when they found themselves spiraling back into the dark past. Scott and Alex, however, had had little contact after their initial meeting. Neither brother knew how to really process seeing the other. It was like they were both seeing a ghost from a vague, hardly plausible past. 

Alex had moved himself to the library after growing tired of the white walls and sterile smell of the infirmary. He experienced significantly less nightmares when sleeping in the library as opposed to the infirmary. Alex was just waking from a light nap when he heard someone walking into the room. He shot into a sitting position, his head snapping to the entryway. He visibly relaxed when the person coming towards him was Scott, “H-hey, Scott.”

“Hey, Alex. How are you feeling?” Scott asked as he came around the soft leather couch Alex was lying on.

Alex shrugged, “Better. Staying in here has helped me sleep. Stomach is still a little sore, though.”

“Yeah. I’m glad to hear you’re sleeping, though. That’ll help the whole healing process.” Scott gestured to the part of the couch Alex wasn’t stretched across, “Mind if I sit?” Alex shook his head and Scott sat. “Thanks.” He paused. “Alex. I wanted to… ask you about something.”

“Is this about how I knew you were alive?”

“You sure you’re not a telepath?”

“Nah, I just know a good one.”

Scott grinned and shook his head, “Well, yes. I wanted to know how you knew I was alive. Cause I sure as hell didn’t know you were still kicking.”

Alex settled back into the couch a little, his hands quaking, “I didn’t know for a long time. Once we were separated… I thought you were dead. I didn’t think there was any way you could have survived after that coma. I hardly even thought about you before I met Charles. I wouldn’t let myself. I couldn’t stand to think about the fact that I was really alone.” He paused and sucked in a shaky breath, “But, when I met Xavier, I started to let myself think about you. About the possibility you had grown up with some half decent foster parents who gave any shits about you. I was in Cerebro - this huge machine that connects Charles to all the mutants in the world - and I got this feeling. I could’ve sworn I saw this guy who looked exactly like the little shit ten year old I fell out of a plane with. Before I could do much more digging, I got drafted. While there, I had one of my friends run your name though every database they could. An address finally turned up for you, but I had no idea if it was real. Writing that letter to you was the biggest hail Mary. I felt like something was wrong in our camp for weeks. I thought I was so clever writing you that letter. But, hey. I guess it worked.”

Scott remained quiet for an uncomfortably long time as he processed the story Alex had told him. He finally spoke, his voice quiet as he tried to keep it from breaking, “Alex, I’m sorry.”

“Scott, you don’t need to -”

“No, Alex. Just let me do this. I need to.” Scott pushed his hands through his hair and then rested them on his lap. “I was afraid to look for you. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t control my mutation. I didn’t want to stumble across your death record and lose control. Even after I grew accustomed to the world I was living in… I didn’t want to take that chance. My roommate get the mail that day. He read who it was from and I almost killed him. I didn’t think he would ever joke like that. Then, he read me the letter and I cried for the first time in years. I made my roommate search like a mad person for, well, for Charles. I had remembered the mutant news reports speculating on abilities and they described your powers and that just felt so familiar and… right. My roommate found Charles and the address for some sort of “gifted youngsters” school, so I showed up. I had no idea what I would find. I didn’t think there’d be a scrawny nerd waiting to give me fancy ass red glasses so I could see for the first time in almost twenty years.”

“Wait,” Alex interrupted with a laugh. “That was your first impression of Hank?”

“Isn’t is everyone’s?” Scott retorted with a grin. 

“Man, you’re definitely my brother.” Alex said. 

“But, yeah, living in the dark - both physically and metaphorically - about whether you were alive or not, was harder than anything. I wished someone would have just told me you were dead, so at least I would know something. Then I could at least come to terms with it and go about my life not worrying every second about how I was going to find this guy who may or may not have survived the awful American foster system.”

“Yeah, I know how you feel,” Alex said with a nod. “So, you really were blind for all those years?”

Scott nodded, “My mutation didn’t manifest right away, so I wasn’t blind right away, but as soon as lasers started shooting for no reason… I had to take measures.”

“And your roommate helped you find me?”

“Yeah. His name was Matthew. He was a mutant, so we sort of helped each other survive.”

“I still can’t believe that address was right. I almost didn’t even send it.” Alex ran a hand over his face. “So, what happened to you after we got separated? Did you end up getting adopted?”

Scott shook his head, “I didn’t. No one wanted a grown kid with head issues. I ended up running away from the orphanage when I was sixteen. That was when my mutation first appeared. I ended up hitting this huge crane and it was a disaster. I hid around the streets for a while. I ran into Matthew when we were eighteen and we helped each other survive.”

“That sucks, man, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, it turned around quick though when I met Matt. Anyways, what happened with you after you got adopted?”

“Man, the family that adopted me actually seemed pretty alright. We moved to Honolulu, Hawaii and I was super geeked about it at first. Then, I found out that they were just trying to replace their dead son, Todd, with me and then things got super weird. My foster sister, Haley, was the only reason I stayed sane. She didn’t try to treat me like her dead brother. A year or two later, the guy who killed Todd came back and tried to kidnap me and Haley. That’s when my powers manifested. I completely incinerated the guy. I didn’t stick around much longer after that. I came back to the states and got myself into a shit load of trouble. I lost control of powers again and… and another guy died. Got myself sent to prison and then into solitary. That’s where Charles and Erik found me.”

“Wait, didn’t you just meet Eric with Trask?”

Alex shook his head, “No. Different Erik. Magneto Erik.”

“No, shit.”

“Yeah, he was a little more in control back then. But, they brought me back here and I learned how to control my powers and we went to Cuba. Shit hit the fan after that, then I was drafted, picked up by Trask, and no we’re here.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah, it’s been a ride.”

“What was Cuba like?”

Alex snorted, “Fucking awful. Things would’ve been fine if Er- Magneto didn’t try to fire the fucking missiles back at the Russians, but of course he had to try and be all dramatic. In the end, Charles convinced him not to. Magneto was too far gone at that point and he took Raven with him. And Charles was paralyzed from the waist down, so it was the shittiest shit show.”

“Paralyzed?”

“Yeah. Magneto deflected a bullet into his spine.”

“Alex, he was walking.”

Alex’s eyes widened, “What?”

“When we first got here, he was walking around just fine.”

“That son of a bitch,” Alex ground out.

“What?”

“Hank was in the process of developing this serum that could “correct” DNA and help him control or suppress an X-Gene. I got drafted before he finished it. I didn’t think Charles would actually use it. I knew Hank would, because he didn’t want to be blue all the time, but I never thought…” Alex trailed off as he started to push himself into a standing position.

Scott rose quickly, “Where are you going?”

“To give Xavier a piece of my mind.” Alex’s knees buckled, but he was stabilized by Scott’s hands under his shoulders. “I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“Nope, but I’m gonna do this anyways.” Alex said as he backed away from Scott and turned to head out of the library for the first time in days. “You can come with, if you want. Observe the spectacle.”

Scott sighed, “Just, don’t let things get out of hand.”

“Me? Out of hand? Come on, Scott. Never.” 

Alex made his way as quickly as he could through the familiar halls, his mind racing. He didn’t know who he was more upset with: Hank for letting the professor take the serum, or the professor for taking it at all. Alex pushed between Hank and Raven who were standing at the bottom of the staircase deep in conversation.

“Hey, Alex, I didn’t know you were up to moving around, yet.” Hank called, a bit startled after being moved so aggressively.

“Fuck off, Bozo.” Alex snapped.

Alex ignored whatever else they had to say as he ascended the stairs and turned towards Charles’s office. His eyes narrowed when he saw the man standing,  _ standing  _ behind his desk. The blond mutant stormed towards the doorway, his body protesting, his mind not listening. Charles turned just in time for Alex to bring a fist down on his jaw, “Hey,  _ Professor _ .”

Charles cradled his jaw in a cupped hand, “Alex, you’re up and walking.”

“And you are too, apparently.” Alex sneered. “Normally, I wouldn’t be able to get the jump on you like that. Did you really give up your mutation so you could fucking  _ walk?  _ That doesn’t seem like the person I remember.”

“You don’t understand, Alex.”

“You’re right. I don’t.”

“The voices in my head wouldn’t stop. So many people were dying. They were so lost and broken. I couldn’t figure out how to make them go away. I had to use the serum.”

Alex’s fists clenched, “You don’t think we all wanted to make our mutation go away after Cuba? We were all broken. We were all suffering. We needed you, but you locked yourself away up here and cried about how  _ awful  _ your life is. You were so blinded by your own self pity that you didn’t even realize what was going on around you. From what I’ve gathered, you turned Raven away when all she wanted to do was save more mutants. And not to sound self centered or anything, but you didn’t even want to try and save me? I was stupid to think we served any other purpose besides adding to your hero complex.”

“Stop it, Alex.”

“No. You don’t deserve that. You’ve ignored me for too long.” Alex snapped. “I wrote to you every chance I got when I was in Vietnam. I knew something was wrong from the moment I got there. I thought for a second I could rely on you to help your fellow mutants. Turns out you were too busy losing yourself!”

“That is completely unfair.”

“It’s not. You say that losing people, watching them die broke you beyond repair. I  _ murdered  _ two people before I was even sixteen. In Vietnam, I watched my friends get blow up by fucking land mines. And it’s hard to avoid killing more people when there are bullets raining around you. So, before you go telling me that one  _ betrayal _ , not even one death, shattered you, try to think about the other people around you. Or can you not even do that anymore, Mr. Telepath?”

“Enough!”

“What? Do I sound too much like Erik, for you?”

“I let you into my home.” Charles whispered.

“I thought this was all of ours? Or did that only matter when you needed us?”

Charles’s jaw clenched and tears began to pool in his eyes, “I let you into my home and then I failed you.”

“What?” Alex was completely taken aback by the change in tone.

“I was supposed to give you a place to grow and learn and feel safe. I thought I was a god, but Cuba… that made me realize I was just as vulnerable as anyone. I realized that I wasn’t untouchable and that scared me.” Charles sighed. “And, I failed you. I failed Angel. I failed… I failed Sean. I failed Raven. I turned Hank into my personal drug dealer. And I failed all the mutants who needed me. Amora and Xena helped me realize that for a minute, but this… god, Alex.” His legs shook and he had to move immediately to a chair. “I’m trying to come off the serum, but the voices. When Erik pushed the coin through Shaw… it did something to my walls. I can’t control any of it.”

Alex leaned up against a wall, “You’ll figure it out. You did before and you will again. And now you’ve got a whole team around you. I’m sure Raven will skip out again, but I’ll be sticking around, Scott probably will too, same with Eric and Hank. I’m not sure about Amora and Xena, but I think they’ll be around for a bit. As long as you’re here for us, we’ll be here for you.”

“You sure?”

“I am.” Alex’s hand flew to his stomach. “Now, I need to go lay back down before I need to be carried down the stairs.” Alex turned to walk out of the office, but Charles said something that stopped him.

“Thank you, Alex. I hated hearing all of that, but thank you.”

He nodded. “Glad being angry finally got me somewhere.”


	16. Sixteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not as long as some of the other chapters, but I didn't want to overdo it with multiple storylines in this chapter. I loved writing this and I hope you all enjoy it.

ERIC’S POV

 

He sat stiffly on a bed in a room that had been designated his own. His hands rested in his lap, fingers clasped tightly to prevent them from shaking. Sweat dripped down his nose and rolled down his back. He was dressed in sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt despite the heat in the room.Bruises and scars littered his body and he couldn’t bear to look at them. A sob had been caught in his throat for hours now, threatening to shatter the dam inside him and release the pain of the past two weeks. His shoulders tensed and his pressed his lips into a tight line. He was afraid of what might happen if he gave into the fear. The pain. The frightening memories. He had been in the mansion for over a week and he still hadn’t let himself remember. What was trapped in his brain terrified him. The ‘Professor’ persistently asked him about how he was feeling or if he needed anything. Erik’s response was always, “No. I’m fine.” The only person he truly wanted to talk to was Alex, but he didn’t want to approach him just yet. Alex had only just recovered and he didn’t want to risk sending Alex spiraling back. 

Eric leaned forward, unclasping his hands and wrapping his arms around his chest. He wanted to stop feeling. He wanted the aches to go away and the screams to stop haunting every minute of every day. The nightmares he witnessed every night made him want to rip his eyes from his skull. He pressed his elbows against his knees, wanting to hide himself as much as possible. Spending so long in that pitch-black prison cell had eaten into his mind, taken away his self confidence and control. He had given up so much, lost his humanity. He thought he was going to die in that cell - more importantly - he thought he was going to kill himself. He thought there was no chance he could have made it out of that facility alive. He hated it when Alex was thrown in there with him… but he knew that was the only reason he didn’t attempt to kill himself. Alex had given him a reason to keep living and, for a moment, he could hear through the screams. 

He was about to pull his legs onto the bed and attempt to nap when a voice from the doorway captured his attention, “Hey. Mind if I come in?”

Eric unfolded himself and waved Alex into the room, “No. How’re you feeling? I didn’t know you were moving around so much yet.”

Alex shrugged, “I’m not really supposed to be yet, so don’t tell Hank.”

“Your secret is safe with me.” He shifted over so there would be room for Alex to sit if he wanted. “You want to sit?”

He shook his head, “I was actually wondering if you’d want to talk a walk outside with me? You’ve probably been cooped up in here as long as I have.”

“Yeah. That sounds great.” 

“You want to change?” Alex asked. “You look a little warm.”

Eric’s cheeks flushed as he stood, both from embarrassment and heat rushing to his head. “Uh, yeah. Give me a minute. I’ll be right out.” Alex stepped into the hall and gently closed the door behind him. Eric stepped over to the dresser and opened one of the drawers. It had been fully stocked with all sorts of clothing items. Eric had assumed the clothes had belonged to one of the mutants from the original team. No one had laid claim to it, so Eric had borrowed them for them time being. He removed a t-shirt and khaki shorts from the dresser and, very slowly, pulled them on. He hated feeling so exposed. He hated them anyone could look at the scars and the tattoos and the bruises and judge him without even knowing him. He knew he wasn’t at risk of that here, but it was incredibly unnerving to even consider. He shook his head and rolled his shoulders back, not wanting to get too overcome by his insecurity. 

Once he was changed, he stepped out of the room and was met by Alex leaning against the wall just to the right of him. “You ready?” Eric asked,

Alex righted his posture and nodded, “I am. And I’m glad you won’t be melting the second we step outside.”

“Is it that hot?”

“It’s not blistering, but it’s about to rain so it’s sticky.” Alex commented as they turned down the hall. 

“That’s my least favorite weather.” Eric grumbled.

“Would you rather stay in here sweating in a stuffy room? At least there’s a lake and chance of rain outside.”

Erin grinned, “Good. There’s a lake I can throw you in when you annoy me.”

Alex chuckled, “You might end up in there first if you keep this up.”

“Where are you two going?” Hank asked as they passed him on the stairs.

“Just outside. We’re tired of being stuck in here,” Alex stated.

Hank sighed, “You should still be resting.”

“I can rest outside.” Alex shot back with a testing grin. 

“Fine.” Hank muttered.

Eric laughed and they turned the corner that would lead them to the hallway to take them outside. “How did you learn how to navigate this place?”

Alex laughed and shook his head, “Honestly, I have no idea. I think Charles finally started projecting maps of this place into my head so that I would stop coming to him when I got lost.”

“He sounds like a good guy.”

“Yeah, he was.” Alex sighed. “But, I’m done dealing with and trying to fix his problems for him, so he can figure out what he’s doing and I guess I’ll be here if he even needs anything. I’m not looking to go out of my way to help him out, though.” 

“Makes sense. You’ve got enough to handle.” They exited the mansion and started to make their way across the expansive back lawn towards the lake. “Man, it feels just like ‘Nam out here.”

“Doesn’t smell half as bad, though.”

“Yeah. You could smell Toad from miles away.” Eric said with a laugh. 

“Oh my god, then when he walked into the tent. Man I could’ve vomited every time he came close to me.” 

“Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad. Made me turn away, but I never wanted to vomit.” Eric said, running a shoulder into Alex. 

Alex stumbled to the side with a laugh, “Sorry that not all of us can have noses of steel.”

“Living in a place like this couldn’t have possibly prepared you for what Toad smelled like.” Eric said with a shrug.

Now it was Alex’s turn to shove him back, “Hey, it didn’t always smell like a cleaning product store in here. When Hank was blue he trapped odors like nobody’s business.”

“When he was blue?”

“Yeah, he used to be completely covered in blue fur. He tried to cosmetically alter his beast feet, but it just enhanced his x-gene. That’s some science I will never understand.”

“You don’t understand most science, do you?”

“Do you want to go in the lake?”

“I thought Hank said you were supposed to rest?”

“I’ll rest once you’re dripping wet.”

Eric raised an eyebrow, “Is that a challenge?”

“No. That’s a promise.” 

“Last I checked, you were slower than me.”

“Who said I needed to be faster?” 

“Isn’t that how -” Alex’s warm hand on his cheek cut him off. “Alex… what?”

“I just need to be smarter.” He said as he leaned forward and gently pressed his lips against Eric’s. 

Eric remained still for a stunned moment before he moved to bring a hand around Alex’s neck. He wrapped his other arm around Alex’s waist, pulling him closer. Once their bodies were pressed close together, nothing else matter. Eric could hear Alex’s heart beating and he could feel the passion between them mounting with each second. They pulled apart for a moment only to take a breath before their mouths locked again. Alex’s free hand worked its way up Eric’s shirt, indifferent to the rough feel of the skin beneath it. 

Alex pulled back, his grin falling for a moment, “Eric, is this… is this what you want?”

“Alex, I went through hell and back with you. Never once did I want to leave your side. You’re everything I ever wanted. So, yes. This is what I want.”

“You cheesy bastard.” Alex muttered, his cocky smile returning. 

“You asked.”

“And you asked for this.” Alex pushed forward and Eric stumbled back. Just before he fell over the outcropping and into the water, he grabbed onto Alex’s shirt and pulled him in with him. They both crashed into the chilling water, laughter bubbling from both of them. In seconds they were both wrapped around each other again, lips pressed together, moving in sync as though they had done this a hundred times before. 

“Will you stay?” Alex asked breathlessly after a minute.

“I will. For you.”


	17. Seventen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this is just smut because I was bored and this was all that my brain would let me write. It really has no plot relevance, but it does dive into their heads a little bit at the end. There is also a very incredibly brief mention of non-consensual sex, so be mindful if that is something you're not comfortable with. It's not a necessary read, but it's here in case anyone wants to understand how much I love this pairing. Enjoy!

ALEX + ERIC

 

The two splashed their way to the shallowest edge of the lake after a few minutes. Alex pulled himself out of the water first, then extended a hand to help Eric climb out. Alex pulled Eric back into his arms, placing a feverish kiss on Eric’s lips. 

“You want to… to take this, take this inside?” Alex asked between kisses, voice caught in deep breaths. 

“Won’t… won’t someone hear?”  Eric asked.

Alex pulled back and pressed his forehead against Eric’s, “Don’t worry. This place is big enough. And since the Professor doesn’t have his telepathy… we’ll be fine.”

“Then, yes, I would love to take this inside.”

Alex grinned mischievously and grabbed Eric’s hand in his. His body felt newly alive, incredible amounts of adrenaline pumping through his body as he pulled Eric up to his bedroom. He pushed Eric through the door and shut it behind him, making sure he turned the lock on the handle. They didn’t want any unannounced visitors. 

Eric reached out and pulled Alex close to him, slipping his hands under Alex’s shirt. Alex moved back to allow Eric to slip his shirt off over his head. Alex quickly returned the favor; tossing Eric’s shirt at the foot of his bed. Eric paused a moment to take in Alex’s body. He had seen it numerous times in Vietnam, but this was the first time he really had a chance to look, to gaze at Alex as a lover, not just a teammate. The scars on Alex’s torso stood out against his pale skin, but Eric didn’t think anything of them. They told a story and showed just how strong the man before him was. 

“You just gonna stare at me all night?” Alex asked with a cocky smirk. 

Eric trailed a hand up Alex’s chest, “I could. Unless that would get you too hot and bothered.”

“Well, this is no museum. You are allowed to touch what turns you on.” 

“You cheesy bastard,” Eric said as he snaked his arm around Alex’s waist. Eric pulled the blond towards him, grinding his hips against Alex’s. Alex let out a low moan as Eric leaned in to press hot, sloppy kisses across his jaw and down his neck. Eric’s fingers pulled at the belted jeans in front of him, needing the extra clothing to be gone. He undid the belt and whipped it out of Alex’s faded blue jean belt loops. Then, he quickly unbuttoned the pants, dropped the zipper, and shoved the jeans to the ground. Alex’s hips bucked against Eric’s when he removed his hands to drop his own shorts. 

Now the two, just clad in their boxer shorts, crashed back into one another. Their hands had no control as they boundlessly explored each other’s body. Alex’s fingers were the first to dip beneath an elastic boxer band. A shudder ran through Eric’s body as Alex’s cold fingers brushed over high thigh and moved around to cup his toned ass. Alex squeezed his fingers, eliciting a soft moan from Eric. He slipped his other hand down Eric’s boxers to palm his other cheek. Eric gasped and he pressed further against Alex, cock twitching in response to Alex’s movements. Alex, feeling Eric’s cock twitch against his inner thigh, leaned down and captured the base of Eric’s neck with a sloppy kiss. He pressed kisses and nipped at the skip up Eric’s neck until he eventually recaptured the other man’s lips in his own. 

“You sure you want to do this?” Alex asked breathlessly. “We can slow down.”

“Yes.” Eric responded. “Yes, I want this. And, no. Please don’t slow down.”

Alex flashed a broad smile before he smashed his lips into Eric’s and pulled his hands up just enough to hook his thumbs around the band of the boxer shorts and push them to the ground along with the other discarded clothing. Alex brought one hand up and braced it against the back of Eric’s head as he gently moved his other hand to wrap around Eric’s semi-hard cock. Eric gasped against Alex’s mouth at the sudden contact. His eyes blew wide as saucers as Alex began to stroke his hand up and down his cock. A whimper even escaped his lips when Alex massaged his thumb against Eric’s tip. 

“Jesus, Summers,” He gasped, heart racing, cock fully hardening.

“Is there something I can do for you?” Alex inquired, his voice thick with lust. 

Eric nodded, not able to form the words.

“Well, you have to tell me. I’m not mind reader.”

Eric gulped, “Suck me off.” He moaned when Alex’s hand tightened slightly. “S-suck me off, please.”

Alex grinned, “Only cause you asked so nicely.” He placed one last firm kiss on Eric’s lips before he slowly brought himself to his knees. He grabbed Eric’s cock in his hand and pumped his hand up along the shaft a few more times before he guided it to his open mouth. He flicked his tongue out, just far enough to graze the tip of Eric’s throbbing cock. Eric fought the urge to twist his fingers in Alex’s hair and force his cock down the blond’s throat, needing the heat against his cock before he went crazy just thinking about it. He settled for just gently running his hands through Alex’s thick, blond hair. Alex seemed to get the message, though. He opened his mouth wider and allowed Eric to guide his mouth around his erection. Alex made sure to wrap his upper lip over his top teeth and cup his tongue over his bottom teeth so there would be no uncomfortable scratching. Alex braced his hands against Eric’s thighs, knowing he would need something to steady him as he took Eric’s cock in to the base. He pulled almost all the way off Eric’s cock when he felt the tattooed mutant tighten his fingers in his hair and push him back down to the base. Saliva began to drip from the corners of Alex’s mouth as his head bobbed backward and forward. When he felt Eric’s legs begin to shake and the sounds of ecstacy signal that Eric was about to cum, Alex pulled off his cock with a wet pop of his lips. Eric moaned, his fingers releasing Alex’s hair as he fell back onto the bed. 

Alex swiped a hand over his mouth and rose from the ground. He shimmied out of his boxers, his own cock now fully erect. He moved forward and climbed onto the end of the bed, kneeling between Eric’s widely spread legs. He leaned across Eric and whispered in his ear, “I don’t want you to cum until my cock is so deep in you that you can feel it in your whole body. I don’t want you to cum until I’m good and ready for you to. Am I understood?” Eric nodded wordlessly, but Alex wasn’t satisfied. “Am I understood.”

“Yes,” Eric breathed. “Yes, you’re understood.”

“And I want you to understand that you can stop if you’re uncomfortable at any point. Yes?”

“Yes.”

“Good, I’m glad we have that all settled.” Alex said. “Now, move further up the bed. I can’t fuck you if you’re hanging off the end.”

Eric quickly complied, scooting himself further up towards the headboard. Alex moved up with him, crawling forward with a devilish intent. He leaned across to a nightstand where he had kept a small bottle of lube during his first stay in the mansion. The bottle was a bit old, but it would work just as well as a new bottle. 

Alex used his knees to spread Eric’s legs as he applied a generous amount of lube to his right hand. He braced his left hand just to the side of Eric’s head. He kept their faces inches apart, because he wanted to witness every pleasure filled moment that Eric had. Eric’s reaction to Alex’s slick fingers pressing against his asshole did not disappoint. His eyes flew open and his breath caught in his through as Alex teased his hole with his middle finger. “You ready?” Alex asked.

“Yes,” Eric whispered. “Yes, yes, please.”

Alex swept Eric’s lips into a kiss just as he pressed his finger into Eric’s hole. Alex’s lubed finger went in easily and, as he moved it around, Eric released a moan against Alex’s mouth. Alex moved the finger in and out, want Eric to get used to the feeling without moving anything too quickly. After a minute Eric was practically begging for Alex to insert a second finger. 

“You sure you’re ready?” Alex asked.

“Yes.”

“Yes what?” Alex demanded playfully.

“Yes… yes, please.” 

“You are a quick learner,” Alex said as he slowly inserted his ring finger.

Eric’s hole tensed for a moment before it began to relax against the fingers. Eric slowly pulled his knees up closer to his chest to allow Alex better access as the blond began to flex and scissor his fingers inside of him. Eric’s heart fluttered and all he could focus on were Alex’s eyes and the pleasurable pressure he was feeling. 

After another minute of stretching Eric’s hole, Alex asked the question, “Do you think you’re ready?”

“For… for you?”

Alex nodded, “For me.”

Eric gulped, but mostly in excitement, “Yes. Yes, Alex. Please. I am.”

“You’re really eager aren’t you?” Alex asked as he popped the bottle open against and poured some into the palm of his hand.

“I am, I am.” Eric panted, a moan dripping from his lips when Alex removed his fingers. “Please, Alex. I need it.”

“You need it?”

“I do. Please.”

Alex stroked his lubed hand over his cock, making sure he was in the best condition to enter Eric, “You gonna take it for me? You gonna love it?”

Eric nodded eagerly, “I am. Alex, please.”

“I didn’t think I’d get you begging like this.”

Eric groaned, his heart racing, “Fuck, just fuck me. Please”

“Your wish is my command.” He guided his cock to meet Eric’s puckered and stretched hole. He hesitated for half a second, but one glossy-eyed, pleasure filed look from Eric nearly sent him over the edge. He pressed his cock gently into Eric, not missing the slew of curse words and moans that poured from his mouth. Alex’s head fell back as the heat of Eric’s hole swallowed him, his body giving into the incredible pleasure. He had been with guys before, but he had never cared for any of them the way he cared for Eric. Alex felt like he could even really love Eric, although he wasn’t sure what healthy love really felt like. But, he figured that consensual sex was a good start. 

Alex slowly began to roll his hips in towards Eric. He wanted to give Eric time to settle into the size of his cock before he started moving too quickly. Eric moaned as his muscle stretched to accommodate Alex’s cock. The slight discomfort was offset as incredible pleasure soaked endorphins raced through his body, muting every sense except for touch. Everything around him faded away as Alex began to move a little more, pulling out and pushing himself back in. It made Eric feel so complete. He had never had a connection like this with someone, but it was beautiful and he didn’t feel alone anymore. He had this man who was willing to see past everything that was on the outside and really see him for him. And now they were fucking, but it wasn't a quick bang and go. It was gentle and caring and passionate. Eric could hardly breathe because he didn’t want to miss a single thing that Alex was giving to him. 

As Alex began moving more, Eric began to shift his hips to meet Alex’s pace. Eric clenched the sheets in his fists and his eyes squeezed shut when his body felt like it was going to explode. He needed to cum. He body wouldn’t let him hold it in anymore. “Alex… Alex please, please let me cum.”

“Are you ready?” Alex asked.

“I am, god, fuck, I’m ready.”

“Then, cum.” 

Eric’s body arched as he came. His cum coated his stomach and dripped onto the bed beneath them. His jaw dropped and a cry escaped his throat. His body shook and he faintly felt and heard Alex ride out his own orgasm. 

Alex slowly pulled out, his body shaking from pleasure and exertion. He had never felt so good after working so hard. He rolled himself off the bed and almost collapsed when he stood. But, after steadying himself, he pulled the cum-soaked sheet from under Eric, balled it up, and tossed it in a hamper. The bed beneath them was dry, so Alex grabbed a light blanket from under his bed, and flopped back down next to Eric, who immediately pressed his body back up against Alex. The two shared a gentle kiss and when they pull away Eric said, “Alex, I think I’m in love with you.”

A blush rushed onto Alex’s cheeks and a broad smile captured his face, “You know, Eric, I think I’m in love with you too.”


	18. Eighteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took forever. Life got in the way for a bit. But, I made the chapter pretty long and full of juicy details, so I hope that makes up for the wait. Enjoy!

SCOTT’S POV

 

Scott woke up in a cold sweat, t-shirt and boxers plastered to his skin, eyes squeezed tightly shut. He kicked the blanket off his legs and sat up, chest heaving, breaths ragged. He pushed his hands through his sweat heavy hair and tried to control his breathing. He groaned, trying and failing to erase the painful memories that had manifested themselves in horrific nightmares. After sitting in bed for several minutes, Scott swung his legs off the bed and slowly stood. His hand slapped at the table beside his bed and grabbed his ruby-quartz glasses, pushing them onto his face. He hugged his arms close to his body and shuffled to the bathroom attached to his room. He shivered when his feet pressed against the chilled bathroom tile. He closed the thin door behind him and proceeded to strip off his shirt and step out of his boxers. He inched forward and batted a hand around, to find the hot and cold water knobs. He turned the one that had a C embossed on the front. Water began to stream from the shower head and he stepped beneath the spray. His shoulders jerked when the icy water pelted against his back. He turned and let the water wash over his face, removing the foul sweat and body odor from his skin. He ran the water through his hair, the water bouncing off his glasses. 

Scott groaned, trying to wash the horrific memories from his skin and, further, from his mind. He wanted to stop reliving Alex’s near death, he wanted to stop hearing the screams for help, for mercy. He wanted to stop smelling blood and the sterile stench of hospital-like rooms. He wanted to stop feeling unwanted hands roaming his body, prodding at his skull and his eyes. He wanted to stay in the shower, hide from everything that made his skin crawl. 

But, most importantly, he wanted to take Alex away from it all. He wanted to protect Alex, make sure no one would ever hurt his younger brother ever again. He wanted to take Alex home with him, give him the life and the freedom that he never had. Scott knew that this, the X-Men, was Alex’s life, but Scott didn’t want Alex to keep getting hurt like this. He wanted the cycle of pain and suffering to stop. Scott would have to talk with him eventually. 

Five minutes later, Scott shut off the water and pushed the curtain open. He grabbed a towel from a shelf just to his right and ran it through his hair, then over his body. Once he felt dry enough, he secured the towel around his waist and exited the bathroom. Electing to not redress, Scott simply flopped onto the messy bed in his towel. He pulled the blanket up over his body, cold racing through his veins. Thankfully, the water had dispelled any tiredness from him, preventing him from falling back to sleep. 

Several painstaking minutes of staring at the painfully uninspired beige ceiling is interrupted by a soft knock at his door. Scott waited a second to see if the knock would come again, and it did. He ran his hands over his face and pulled his body to a standing position. “Who is it?” He croaked as he approached the door, his throat thick with sleep. He heard a muffled response and another round of light knocking. Scott wrapped his hand around the door handle and eased the door open to reveal an exhausted looking Alex on the other side. The blond’s arms hung limp at his sides and his head was bowed; whether in exhaustion or shame, Scott couldn’t determine. He wore only a thin, white tank and a pair of sleep pants, and, by the disheveled state of his hair, had apparently just rolled out of bed. “Alex? It’s three in the morning, what are you doing up?”

“I couldn’t sleep…” Alex muttered, eyes trained on the ground.

“Why not?” Scott knew what the answer to the question would be, but he still wanted to give Alex the courtesy of his own answer. 

“Been having these nightmares.” 

“Why didn’t you go to Eric?” Truthfully, Scott was glad Alex had come to him. That meant Alex already had some sort of trust in him. Scott only hoped he could help foster that trust rather than break it. 

Alex shrugged, “I don’t want him to have to keep reliving this stuff.” He sighed. “And I know you were there too, but …”

Scott nodded, “I get it. Come in and sit down.” Alex finally raised his eyes from the ground and Scott almost recoiled at the sight of his bloodshot eyes and black bags drooping from his eyelids. “Have you been sleeping at all?”

“I guess.” Alex mumbled as he slumped onto the edge of the bed, shoulders hunched forward. 

“Have your nightmares been that bad?” Scott asked, pulling a chair from the desk on the other side of the room up to the bed so he could sit across from his brother. “Or is it something else?”

“Just the nightmares.” Alex quickly answered. 

Scott raised an eyebrow, “You sure?”

Alex hesitated, but finally whispered, “Eric’s nightmares… they’ve been worse. Night terrors almost.”

“And you’ve been helping him through them?” Scott asked.

“Yeah.”

“So, you haven’t been taking care of your own nightmares?”

Alex shrugged weakly, “There’s no time.”

“What do you do the rest of the day?”

“Try to pretend the nightmares didn’t happen…”

Scott sighed. He felt for Alex, sympathized with him. But, this also meant that he knew how critical it was for Alex to check himself. “Alex if you don’t start sleeping -”

“I know. I know what’ll happen. But, every time I close my eyes for even a minute. I’ve tried taking day naps, I’ve tried Hank’s sleep concoctions, but it won’t work. The only thing that ever helped in the past was Charles’s ability to stave of nightmares, but he isn’t exactly in a position to do that at the moment, so I’m stuck.” Alex said, his voice rushed and incredibly tense. 

“From what I’ve heard, he’s been off that power-blocking serum stuff for a few days, so maybe you could ask him to try?” Scott suggested. 

Alex shook his head, “He’s got more important things to worry about.”

“More important than making sure you can sleep? You’ll die if you don’t get enough sleep, Alex. I’d say helping you should be a priority.”

“Scott, there are more mutants we need to be helping.”

“You won’t be doing very much helping if you’re a dead man walking.”

Alex snorted, “And what would you know about how helpful I can be?”

“I may not know everything there is to know about Alex Summers, but I know what you helped do in Cuba. I know what you tried to help start up a school -”

“That failed.” Alex muttered.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t try again.” Scott said. “But, in order for that you happen, you need to take care of yourself. You just went through all levels of hell and if you don’t take any time to recover from that you’re going to be stuck with it forever.”

“What do you know about what I went through?”

“Alex, I’m not trying to play down what you went through -”

“That’s exactly what it sounds like.”

“Alex, you can’t do this to yourself!” Scott snapped, but immediately regretted his sharp tone, as Alex recoiled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean -”

“I shouldn’t have come to you. Obviously it’s too much for you to handle.” Alex said, starting to stand. Before he could get all the way to his feet he swayed and his knees buckled, landing him back on the mattress. 

“Alex, please I need you to relax. You won’t be going anywhere else tonight. Just stay with me, okay?” 

Alex was silent for a few minutes, the tension thick between the two of them. Scott folded his hands in his lap and trained his eyes on the ground, only looking up when Alex muttered his name, “Scott?”

“Yeah?”

“Will you stay with me?” 

Scott was momentarily stunned by the question, but quickly regained his composure. “I will. I’ll be right here with you, okay?”

Alex nodded, his face slack, voice exhausted, “Okay. Can I sleep in here?”

“Of course you can.”

“Where will you sleep?” Alex murmured, his body already leaning to the side. 

“The bed’s big enough for both of us.”

Alex chuckled sleepily, “Like when we were kids.”

“Exactly.” Scott said as he stood and tucked the chair back under the desk. “Now lay down and get yourself comfortable, I’ll be right next to you if you need me. Okay?”

“M’kay.” Alex muttered, his body now completely laid out on the bed. He rolled onto his right side so he was turned away from Scott. “G’night, Scottie.”

Scott sighed softly and walked around to the other side of the bed, about to settle in when he realized he was only in his post-shower towel. He quickly found a pair of loose shorts and a t-shirt in the dresser, pulling them on before settling onto the bed. He adjusted the blanket so it was settled around Alex’s waist. He flipped the other corner of the blanket up so it covered his legs and he laid down on his left side, back towards Alex. 

As strange as it was to be laying in the same bed as his younger brother, it felt… normal. Scott suddenly didn’t feel as though they were two strangers, it felt like they were two brothers who had spent everyday together. Like they had grown up in a happy, healthy home. Scott yawned softly, sleep descending back upon him. He removed his glassses, tucked a hand beneath his head and quickly drifted off. 

  
  


Scott slowly began to regain consciousness as bright light pressed against his eyelids, begging him to open them without his glasses on. Against his conscience’s poor judgement, Scott stretched out a stiff arm and fumbled for his glasses, which he quickly donned. He groaned and swiveled his eyes around the room until he found the clock. 7:15 am. Why was the sun so bright so early in the morning? With a wide yawn, Scott pushed himself into a sitting position. Only then did he remember the events that occurred four hours prior. His head snapped to the right and he released a heavy sigh to see Alex curled on his side, arms tucked tightly against his chest, knees pulled tightly to him. The position seemed to be one of distress, but Scott was just happy to see that his younger brother was asleep at all. Scott opted to let Alex sleep a few minutes longer, but he would wake his brother before leaving the room. Scott didn’t want Alex to worry about waking to an empty bed. 

Scott stepped into the bathroom to relieve himself and wash his face, deciding after last night’s impromptu shower, he could put that off until later in the day. He returned to the bedroom and opened the dresser, uninspired by the selection of jeans and solid-colored t-shirts. If he was going to stay here he would need to start providing his own wardrobe. Sighing, Scott selected a pair of jeans and a dark t-shirt. He removed a pair of white tube socks from one of the top drawers, but turned his nose up at the boxer shorts. He would stick with the two pairs Raven had been generous enough to pick up for him. He would just need to wash them a bit more frequently. Scott yawned softly and stretched the socks over his feet before realizing he was still in his sleep clothes. He changed clothes in a hurry and dumped the worn clothes at the end of his bed. 

He was just closing the dresser drawers when there was a sharp knock at the door, “Who is it?” He called, padding over to the door as he awaited a response. 

“Scott, is Alex in there with you?” Eric.

Scott opened the door, a bit taken aback by the disheveled state he was in: rumpled clothes, unshaven face, puffy sleep-eyes. “Yeah he is. He came in here around three this morning.”

Visible tension released from Eric’s body, “Thank God. I was worried he had wandered off again.”

“Again?” Scott asked.

“Lately he’s been making his way up to the roof when he’s had nightmares. Not that I didn’t think he would, but I’m a little surprised he came to you. He really won’t even open up to me about what he’s feeling.” Eric said, finishing with a heavy sigh. 

Scott shrugged, “It wasn’t a lot of opening up. There was a lot of guilt, though.”

“Yeah, that seems to be his constant mood.”

“Closed off?”

“Guilty.” Eric paused. “He feels like all of this is his fault. Not fighting back enough in Vietnam. Not fighting enough in the facility. Not trying hard enough to find you.”

“None of that is his fault, though.”

Eric snorted, “Try convincing him that. It’s like talking to a brick wall with him.”

“Have you tried fucking it out of him?” Scott deadpanned.

“Ha ha.” Eric mocked. “If only it were that easy.”

Scott sighed, “So, why were you surprised he came to me?”

Eric shrugged, “Dunno. He’s only confided in you, what, one other time since you were reunited? And suddenly he comes here when he’s got nightmares? No shade on you, it’s just a surprise.”

“Yeah, I was a little shocked myself. I expected to see anyone but him out there. I’d never seen him so vulnerable before. Even when we were kids, he was always the tough guy. Always the police officer, never the crook. But, earlier… that wasn’t the Alex I knew. That scared me a little.”

“I understand the feeling. When we were in ‘Nam, shit, he was so bad at taking orders. He wanted to lead, but he didn’t want the title and the responsibility to go along with it. He always ended up following the order, but he would spend a good minute or two arguing with himself about better options. Always wanted to make sure everyone made it out okay.” Eric rested his hands on his hips with a definitive sigh. “Those nightmares are gonna kill him.”

“I’m going to talk to Charles, see if there’s anything he can do. The guy’s been off his medicine for a while now, so maybe there’s something.”

Eric nodded, “That’s a good idea. Did you say anything to Alex about it?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think he’ll remember any of it. He fought me a little bit, but was too exhausted to really go too hard.” Scott explained.

“Has he been asleep since them?” Eric asked, stretching his neck out to see over Scott’s shoulder and into the room. 

“As far as I know, yeah. He fell asleep all curled up like that, so I’m assuming he didn’t move.” Scott said. 

The two stood silently across from each other for several minutes, not knowing what to say or do without sounding incredibly awkward. Scott finally asked, “So have you been settling in okay? Or has this been a hard transition for you?”

Eric shrugged, “Kind of both. I had never really found a place to ‘settle’ before shipping out, so this is the first place I’ve stayed for this long. I guess it’s alright, but it’s so big. A little too quiet.”

“I agree. I don’t know what to do with myself half the time. I’m thinking of maybe going out later, though. Get some different fresh air and maybe buy some of my own clothes.”

“You’ve got money for that?”

“Yeah. I was saving up for a cross country trip to try and find Alex again. And now that I have him, all that money is just sitting in a bank, not being used.”

“How much you got?”

Scott thought for a moment, “Probably four thousand.”

Eric’s eyes went wide, “No shit. You’re basically rolling in cash. What’d you do to make so much?”

“Worked odd jobs.”

“Yeah me too, but I didn’t make no where near four thousand dollars. What’s your secret?”

“There’s always a job no one is willing to do. And when they find someone to do it… it pays.”

“Well that was unnecessarily cryptic. What were you, a pimp or somethin’?”

“Something like that?”

“Were you a hooker?” Scott’s face flushed, answering Eric’s question. “Damn, I never took you for the type. Wait until Alex hears -”

“Please don’t.” Scott interrupted. “I don't want him to know.”

“Scott, I really don’t think he’d mind that much. He’s done shit, too.”

“I know, but…”

Eric held up his hands, “Don’t worry, Scott. If you don’t want me to tell him, then I won’t tell him. I’m not in the market of selling people out.”

“Thank you, Eric.”

“Don’t mention it.” Eric clicked his tongue, “So, are you gonna let him sleep longer, or do you want to wake him up?”

“I was gonna wake him up, cause I don’t want him waking up to any empty bed, but if you want to stay here with him, then he can keep sleeping. He needs it.” Scott said.

“Okay, I will. Have fun on your little shopping trip.”

“I’m going to talk to Charles first, but then I will definitely enjoy my shopping trip.”

Eric grinned, “Yeah, good luck with that first one. You’re gonna need it.”

Scott rolled his eyes, “I’ll let you know what he says.” He brushed past Eric and made his way down the residential hallway towards Charles’s main office. The door was shut, so Scott knocked.

“Yes?” Came the response from inside.

“It’s Scott. Could I talk to you?”

“Yes, come right in.” Scott pushed the door in and stepped into the well furnished office that looked like any office you would find at a wealthy university. “How can I help you, Scott? Oh, and take a seat, please.” He said, gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk. 

Scott sat and cleared his throat, “I have some concerns about Alex.”

“Then, why do you not talk to him about this?”

Scott shook his head, “It’s not something he can really take care of on his own.”

“Oh?”

“He’s been having these nightmares. He can’t sleep. I think they’re plaguing him even when he’s awake. I know Eric’s been helping him for a while, but he came to me last night and he looked miserable, like he hadn’t slept in weeks.”

Charles hummed in response, “Yes, I did notice that. However, I didn’t want to intervene without someone approaching me about it. I made a promise to Alex that I would never reach inside his mind without his permission.”

“So, if he gave you his permission, you’d be able to help him get past these nightmares?”

“I could hold them off for a few days so he could sleep properly, but I wouldn’t be able to make them go away forever. That much he will have to figure out on his own.”

“It should be easier, though, once he’s able to to sleep, right?” Scott asked.

Charles nodded, “It should. He’ll be able to rationalize a lot more of what he is seeing and feeling. He’s so trapped in the nightmare, because he can’t make heads or tails of what is and isn’t reality. What I can give him is a sense of reality.”

“Should I come to him with this idea, or would you rather do it?”

“I think this should be up to you. If I approach him he may push back, because he sees me more as an authoritative figure that he should push against. But, if it’s your idea, he may listen more closely. Thank you, Scott, for bringing this to my attention.” Charles sighed. “Since I stopped using that serum it’s been difficult staying out of your minds. I didn’t want anyone to feel I was abusing my abilities now that I have them back.”

Scott nodded, “That makes sense. How long have you had your abilities back?”

“A few days, sporadically. I only feel like I’ve had full control of it since yesterday.”

“Have you been practicing?”

“Hank let me dive a little into his mind. As did Amora and Xena.”

“Will they be staying with us long?” Scott redirected.

“Until they get back on their feet. They’re planning on going after some of the other mutants who escaped that facility to find out everyone who made it out alive, and see if there is anyone left in the facility that they can release.” Charles explained. 

“Is anyone planning on going with them”

“Only if they see it fit. I cannot exactly make it mandatory.” Charles said with a sullen laugh.

“Do you think you may every start up the X-Men again?”

Charles’s mood changed, his tight shouldered, professor demeanor faded and was replaced with a man who appeared tired and weathered beyond his age. “I don’t know if anyone would be willing to give that another chance. After Cuba, I don’t even know if I would be willing to try again. Maybe in time.”

“Well, I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere, so if you change your mind. I’m here.” Scott said.

“You know, Scott, I think you would make an excellent leader.”

Scott nodded in acceptance of the compliment, “Thank you.” He stood. “Well, I’m going to go talk to Alex, figure out what’s up.”

“Come back to me as soon as you have an answer from him.”

“Of course.” Scott turned from the office and walked back to his room. He gently pushed the door open to see Alex huddled in Eric’s arms, skin pale, body shaking. “Is everything alright?”

Eric raised his eyes and shook his head, “It was a nightmare, but he won’t talk to me. He’s been like this for a few minutes. You left and he woke up, completely panicked.”

“Let me try and talk to him.” Scott said, kneeling beside the bed so he was below Alex as to appear non-threatening. “Hey, Alex, it’s me, Scott. I’m going to hold your hand. Squeeze my hand if you understand me, okay?” Scott slipped his hand into Alex’s and almost immediately Alex gently squeezed. “Good. Now, I’m going to talk to you about something that will help your nightmares, but I need to make sure that it is okay with you. So, squeeze my hand twice for yes and once for no.” Two squeezes. “Good. Now, I was just talking to Charles to see if he could help you with your nightmares.” One long squeeze. Scott sighed. “Alex, I really think that this will help you. He said he won’t be able to hold off the nightmares forever, but he could give you enough time to right yourself, collect your thoughts, recover properly.” Another long squeeze. “Alex, you need this. I know it’s hard to admit it, but you haven’t slept well in days and it’s starting to show. You’re going to go crazy if you keep this up. You’re going to kill yourself. Are you really going to let your stubbornness get you killed? Alex, I know this is your choice and Charles won’t go into your head unless you say yes, but I can’t lose you again. I can’t watch you throw your life away because you’re afraid of admitting that you need help. Please, Alex. If you can’t do this for me, then do it for yourself. Do it for Eric.” One short squeeze. A pause. A second squeeze. “Okay. I’m going to go get Charles now. Just stay here with Eric, okay?” Two quick squeezes. Scott turned his attention to Eric, “I’m going to get Charles. Try to keep him as calm as you can.” Eric nodded and Scott turned out of the room. 

Scott hustled down the hallway, wanting to get Charles to Alex before he changed his mind. “Charles!” Scott called before he even stepped through the office door. 

“What is it, Scott?” Charles asked, looking up from a journal in front of him. “Did you hear from Alex?”

Scott stopped in the doorway, “He said yes. I don’t want him to change his mind, though, so I came to you right away.”

“Of course.” Charles moved his hands off the desk and onto the wheels of his chair. “Show me to him.”

Scott nodded and kept pace with Charles down the long hallway. “He’s with Eric now. He was just coming out of a nightmare when I got to him. Now would be a good time to try and calm him down.” Scott pushed the door all the way open so Charles could get his chair in. 

Eric was still holding Alex on the bed and Charles rolled right up to the edge, “Hello, Alex. I am here to make sure that you relax and get at least a few hours of sleep. Scott told me that you agreed to this. Is that correct?” Alex was slightly more lucid, so he was able to nod his head in response. “Excellent. Now, Eric,” He looked to the tattooed mutant. “I need you to lay Alex down. You can still hold his hand, stay close to him, whatever you need to do, but I need him lying down. Yes?”

“Yeah,” Eric said, slowly lowering Alex into a reclined position. 

“Thank you, Eric.” He stretched out a hand and rested it on Alex’s closest shoulder. “Now, I need you two to watch him. Nothing should go wrong, but when I first enter his mind it may cause him a bit of discomfort. Are we ready?”

Scott nodded, “Yes.”

“I am.” Eric said, hand intertwined with Alex’s. 

“Good. Alex, I am going to need you to try and take as deep and as even breaths as you can. This won’t hurt you, but it may feel a bit strange. You remember the feeling, don’t you?” Alex groaned in response and Charles smiled softly. “I will take that as a yes. I’m going to enter your mind in three… two…” He pressed his fingers against his temple. “One.”


	19. Chapter Nineteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I start school this week and wanted to get a chapter out before it gets too out of hand again. It's not as long as the last chapter, but I hope you enjoy it. And, don't worry, the story will get more exciting in the next few chapters.

ALEX + CHARLES

 

Darkness. Grey haze. Muffled sounds. Hands grasping at nothing. This myriad of muffled senses continued for what seemed like hours. Alex felt as though he was on the brink of consciousness the entire time, but didn’t have the will to pull himself out of the senseless void. Finally, he felt a pressure against his left side. Then, the gentle breeze accompanied by a soft, fresh smell. Harsh light started to press against his eyes, begging him to pull apart his lids. After a moment he gave in, peeling his sleep crusted eye lashes apart. Wait. He paused. He hadn’t been able to sleep long enough for his lashes to be so knitted together in days. Had he finally slept? He groaned softly, not prepared for the bright lamp resting on the bedside table. He looked to his left and saw Eric’s sleeping form pressed tight against him. To his right, he saw Charles sitting in his chair, fingers pressed against his temple. 

“Professor…?” He croaked. “What…?”

Charles slowly opened his eyes and lowered his hand to his lap. “Welcome back, Alex. How do you feel?”

Alex squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, successfully focusing his vision. “Weird. Kind of foggy. What happened?”

“I was in your mind while you slept, preventing the nightmares.” Charles briefly explained. 

“Is that why I felt so… empty while I was asleep?”

Charles considered the question for a moment, then answered, “Yes. I was preventing most mental activity while you slept. That would explain it.”

Alex nodded. “How long was I asleep?”

Charles glanced at his silver wristwatch, “Approximately seven hours.”

“You were in my head for that long?”

The professor gently shrugged, “When I become focused in that manner, it is almost as though I am asleep as well. This just means I won’t sleep as much tonight.” He said with a soft chuckle. “So, you are feeling better than earlier, yes?”

“Yeah. I don’t feel like I’m still stuck in a dream. I know I’m awake.”

“That’s good. Excellent, actually. Alex,” Charles sighed and righted his shoulders. “When was the last time you slept for more than five straight hours?”

Alex puffed out his cheeks and released a heavy breath, “I don’t know. Not recently.”

“Okay. For the next few days I am going to help you through these nightmares.” Charles held up a hand to quiet Alex’s protests. “I know that you don’t want to admit to the help you need, but when I was inside of your mind… Alex I cannot imagine how hard it is to spend night after night reliving all of that. I cannot offer you a complete reprieve from those horrors, but what I can offer is guidance through them. Your mind is in an incredibly fragile state and will continue to fracture if you do not give yourself a chance for things to get better. I am not suggesting you are confined to bed or prohibited from training, but you need to slow down. I have seen you pushing yourself far beyond your limits this past week. You are going to burn yourself out, Alex. So, please, let me help you.”

Alex gently edged Eric off of his side and sat up, his back against the headboard. “You’re sure it wouldn’t be a problem?”

Charles shook his head, “Why would it be?”

“You only just got your abilities back. Aren’t there other things you need to be doing?”

“Not at the moment, no. Amora and Xena are going to go out to locate any of the other escaped mutants and to see if there are any mutants still trapped in that facility. Scott may join them if they require the help, but they do not need my assistance at the moment. That means I can focus my attention of giving you the help you need.”

Alex’s eyes locked on the wall in front of him, “Are you sure this will help? What happens when you stop blocking my nightmares? Won’t things fall apart all over again?”

“No, Alex. If I give you the skills you need to separate reality from fantasy. Once you are able to do that on your own, it should be must easier for you to manage any nightmares you have. I need you to trust that I am able to help you. You trusted me before, I need you to trust me again.” 

“How long do you think this will take?” Alex asked. 

“Three or four days. Enough time for your mental state to correct itself and have plenty of time to heal.”

“Can’t it be done in less time?”

Charles shook his head, “Not if you want this done properly. I know you are not the most keen on bed rest, but I need you to be for the next few days.”

“Fine.” Alex said, withholding a groan. “But, if this doesn’t work, I’m holding you personally responsible.”

“That’s only fair.” Charles said with a light chuckle. “Would you like to start now, or would you prefer to begin tomorrow?”

“Today would be fine. Not like I’m doing anything else.”

Charles nodded, “I am going to ask Eric to leave the room, okay? This is a sensitive process and you don’t need any outside distractions.”

“He’s not a distraction.” Alex quickly deferred. 

“Alex, he can distract your thought process in the slightest of way. He can come back as soon as we are done for the day, but until then I do need him to leave.”

Alex looked at Eric and then back at the professor, “Okay. If that’s what you need.”

“Would you wake him up for me?”

Alex nodded and placed a hand on Eric’s shoulder, “Eric. You’ve gotta wake up.”

Eric groaned softly, pulling his arms closer to his chest before opening his eyes, “Hey, Alex. What’s up?” He asked, voice thick with sleep.

“The Professor is here and he’s going to help with my nightmares, but he needs you to leave the room. Doesn’t want me to be distracted by anything.”

Eric rolled on his back and ran his hands over his face, “Okay. How long will it be?”

Alex looked at Charles and the Professor said, “It should take about an hour, maybe an hour and a half.”

“Alright.” Eric said. “Did you want to move Alex back to his own room, though? I know this space is kind of impersonal, but it’s still Scott’s.”

Charles nodded, “Alex, would you want to go back to your own room?”

“I would. Especially if we may be there a while.”

“Eric, would you help Aex back to his room. I will follow right behind.” 

Eric sat up and stood. He came around the other side of the bed and extended an arm to Alex, “Come on, Sleeping Beauty. Let’s get you going.”

Alex rolled his eyes and grabbed Eric’s arm, accepting the help off the bed. The two stepped out of the room and turned down the hallway. A few rooms later, they turned into a room that was much like Scott’s, but more cluttered. Clothes were thrown in piles and a few pairs of shoes laid scattered about the floor. They navigated the items and Eric helped Alex recline onto his own bed. “Alright, I’ll be back as soon as Charles is done with you, okay?”

“Okay. You won’t leave the house, though, right?”

Eric shrugged, “Scott was pretty set on going out to get some food and some other clothes, so I might step out with him for a little bit. But, I don’t see us being going for too long.”

“I can’t believe you’re going on a date with my brother.” Alex said with a chuckle.

“Hey, if I can’t have one Summers I might as well have the other. Right?”

Alex smirked and playfully pushed Eric’s shoulder, “You’re the worst. I don’t know why I put up with you.”

“It’s cause you love me too much not to.” Eric said, pressing a soft kiss to Alex’s lips. “Now, get better. I can’t bang you if you won’t sleep.”

“You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“Oh, I know.” Eric said with a suggestive wink before he turned out of the room.

Charles wheeled in a few moments later, a knowing smile on his face. “You two really have something special, don’t you?”

“I guess we do.” Alex answered. “So, what exactly are you gonna do to me?”

“First, don’t think about it as what I’m going to do to you. Think that what I am doing is helping you to fix yourself. This is your own mind, I am simply guiding you through the process. Your conscious mind will be awake, despite your physical body being asleep.” Charles sighed. “Truly, it sounds more complicated than it actually is. Once I am inside your mind, the whole process will make much more sense. I can promise you that.”

“Whatever you say, Professor.” 

“I need you to lay al the way back and relax. Clear your mind as completely as you can. I need you to focus on the sound of my voice and nothing else. I am going to guide you through a series of breathing exercises to ensure you are as relaxed and comfortable as you can be. Yes?” Alex nodded and the Professor continued. “Close your eyes and take a deep breath in and count to five. One… two… three… four… five. Now release that breath on a count of five. One… two… three… four… five. I want you to repeat that breathing process all through this exercise. Controlling your breathing will be the key to this being successful. 

Now, I am going to enter your mind, but I am going to take you with me. As though I am taking your consciousness and fully implanting it inside of your mind. You will be able to walk through your memories, you will retain full control of your body, but no one in your memories will be able to see or respond to you. I am going to help you sift through your memories, restore the ones that have fractured so they are able to provide a strong foundation for new memories and processes. No matter what you see, I need you to stay relaxed. All you need to remember is that what you are seeing around you is only in your mind and it cannot hurt you. And I will be right by your side. Nothing inside of there has the ability to hurt you. Are you ready Alex?”

Alex released a breath and nodded, “I am. A little confused, but ready.”

“Alright, Alex, I am going to lay a hand over your forehead. My hands are a bit cool, so be ready for that.” Alex nodded in confirmation and Charles reached across the edge of the bed to press his palm against Alex’s forehead. “Close your eyes, Alex.” The blond closed his eyes and a second later Charles did the same. His lids pressed tightly together and in a moment he found himself standing in a blurry cloud, unable to make out his surroundings. Finally, after near a minute of waiting, the area around him cleared and he could see that he was in an airplane. “Alex?” He moved through the plane and saw Alex was sitting in one of the seats, hands clasped tightly in his lap. Charles could also hear the loud chirping of two young boys closer to the front of the plane and he could see two shadowy figures sitting in the cockpit. “Alex, where are we?” Alex stared at his hands, afraid of the words that were going to come out of his mouth. “It’s okay, Alex. Take your time. You don’t need to rush this.”

“This… Pro-professor…” 

“Yes?”

“This is where… where my p-parents died…”

Charles nodded, not exactly taken aback by the answer as he had known about Alex’s past from the few times he dipped into his memory. “Did they die in this plane?”

Alex shook his head, now folding and unfolding his arms across his chest, “No, no, no… the plane… it crashed. S-scott almost died… I almost died…”

“Alex, why are we here? Your mind could have taken us anywhere, why here first?”

Alex shrugged, “I dunno.”

“You do, Alex. You know exactly why we were brought to this time in your mind. Think about it for a moment. Tell me why.”

Alex squeezed his eyes shut, trying to prevent tears. “I don’t know… I don’t know…” He paused and sucked in a shaky breath. “This is… where my life… where my life fell apart. This is where any chance of my life being normal stopped. My parents died, I was sent into foster care, Scott lost his ability to control his powers. My life was never the same after this. Why… why does that matter?”

“Alex, this whole exercise is in hopes to rebuild the parts of your mind that are crumbling, figure out where the fractures are occuring so we may stop them from growing worse. This happens at pressures points in your life. This,” He gestured to the memory around them. “This is one of the greatest pressure points in your entire life.”

“So, what do I need to do now?”

“You need to face this. You need to accept what happened in this event. Right now something in the memory is not correct and you need to fix it. You need to patch the walls. I know it is going to be incredibly difficult, but I need you to do this for me. I need you to do this for you.” 

“Okay.” Alex said. “So, I can just walk around? I figure out what’s wrong and then fix it?”

“Essentially. I will be here if you need any guidance, but this is up to you.” 

Alex slowly stood, “Okay. Let’s do this.”


End file.
